The Daily Times

Two men who escaped from a Carter County Jail Thursday night, including one with a Blount County connection, are back in police custody.

Robert Wayne Jennings, 38, and Troy Lane, 40, escaped from the Carter County Annex of the Northeast Correctional Complex in Carter County around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said.

Jennings is serving time for robbery and burglary convictions from Blount County, Carter said, and would have been released this December.

Lane is serving a sentence on charges of aggravated assault and evading arrest from Sequatchie County. Lane would have had a parole hearing in November.

Carter said the two men were arrested in Cocke County about five hours after their escape Thursday night. The escapees are now being held at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Jennings and Lane will each face a new charge of escaping a correctional facility, which could carry an additional five-year sentence.

The Carter County Annex where they were previously being held is meant for inmates who are preparing to re-enter society, Carter said.

Officials said Jennings entered the prison system in February 1994 on burglary and theft charges from Blount County. He was paroled in 2003 but was later convicted of a new robbery charge in Blount County, officials said.

Thursday’s escape is under investigation, Carter said. Investigators are looking at the possibility the inmates received help from one or more people outside the jail. According to Carter, it’s likely that additional individuals will face charges once the investigation is complete.

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