12/16/16 Jefferson County, TN – Four Inmates Escape Jail By Assaulting Deputy And Taking The Keys To The Deputy’s Car – Captured 140 Miles Away

December 16, 2016

abcnews.go.com

Four inmates escaped a jailhouse in rural Tennessee in a deputy’s vehicle early this morning, authorities said.

Deputies were treating an inmate, 24-year-old Adam Lethco, at the Jefferson County Work House in Dandridge for a hand injury. As the deputies exited the prison cell, four inmates assaulted them and stole the keys to a deputy’s vehicle before fleeing the jailhouse at around 12:15 a.m. local time, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The stolen vehicle, a black Chevy, was spotted by a volunteer firefighter on Highway 411 and later found abandoned on a road in Sevierville. Soon after, Sevier County deputies took one of the escaped inmates into custody, 22-year-old Jimmy Moore. Then at around 3:45 a.m. local time, deputies from Sevier and Jefferson counties took another escaped inmate into custody, 26-year-old Richard Lorenz, deputies said.

Moore and Lorenz were transported back to Jefferson County jail and charged with aggravated assault on an officer and escape. Two inmates, Lethco and 27-year-old Matthew Porter, are still on the run. Both men were last seen in the Sevier County area of Highway 411 wearing white shirts with black and white striped pants, deputies said.

Lethco is serving an eight-year sentence for aggravated burglary, theft and vehicle theft. Porter is serving the first year of a six-year sentence for reckless endangerment and evading arrest. He is also wanted in Alabama for violating probation and is to serve 12 years in prison there, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.