A Cookeville Tennessee Highway Patrolman originally from Smithville captured a male inmate Wednesday who escaped from a prison work detail at Roane Mountain State Park.
Brian D. Knighton, 34, a prisoner from the Northeast Correctional Complex-Annex in Mountain City, stole a state-registered 2007 Dodge Caravan, changed the license plates, and fled the upper East Tennessee state park just after 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28.
All THP units in the Cookeville District were instructed to “be on the lookout”, and by Wednesday morning, Trooper Eric McCormick noticed the vehicle at the Marathon Gas station located on South Jefferson Avenue in Cookeville. Trooper McCormick, who was assisted by additional State Troopers, took the subject into custody just before 11 a.m.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the Tennessee Department of Correction (DOC) are investigating.
McCormick is the son of Jim and Becky McCormick of Smithville.