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Inmate who helped plan Hawkins County jail escape sentenced

ROGERSVILLE — One of the three Hawkins County Jail inmates involved in the Feb. 4 escape that left two jailers seriously injured was sentenced to two years in jail Friday for his part in the escape planning.

Justin David Kelley, 21, 1172 Burem Road, Rogersville, didn’t actually leave the jail during the escape, but investigators said he did help two cell mates as they persuaded jailers to open their cell door.

Kelley’s cell mates, Travis Wayne Gunter and Bradley Alan Bond, faked illness to convince guards to open their cell. They then attacked the guards with a metal bar that had been torn loose from the building, escaped and were subsequently recaptured — Bond about a block from the jail shortly after the escape, and Gunter the next day in Greeneville.

“In his (Kelley’s) statement he said they had discussed escaping, and he saw them getting the metal bar loose that they used to assault the guards,” Assistant Attorney General Doug Godbee told the Times-News. “He (Kelley) then stood by as the escape transpired without warning the guards. Some of the inmates actually stepped in and pulled the escapees off of the guards, but he (Kelley) stood by and watched.”

On Friday, Kelley pleaded guilty in Hawkins County Circuit Court before Judge John Dugger to two counts of criminal responsibility for another (escape) and two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.

Aside from the two-year sentence, Kelley was fined $600.

That sentence will run consecutively to the three-year sentence he received in June for the theft charge that had put in him jail at the time of the escape to start with, as well as 11 months and 29 days for assault that Kelley received for attacking his brother while being walked back to the jail from the courthouse following a court hearing.

The overall effective sentence is five years, 11 months and 29 days. Kelley will be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent.

Bond has been sentenced on the robbery charge that put him in jail originally but awaits trial in February on escape and attempted murder charges.

Gunter is in federal custody awaiting trial on charges related to the escape as well.

Among the other guilty pleas heard by Dugger Friday were:

• Wendy C. Barrett, 33, Church Hill, who was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay $12,636.68 in restitution to the Tennessee Department of Human Services for TennCare fraud.

• Marty Ellison Hughes, 39, 151 Stewart Hills Drive, Rogersville, who was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $150 for felony reckless endangerment and resisting arrest.

• Dustin Tyler Wade, 22, 170 Woodlawn St., Apt. H, Rogersville, who was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $150 for statutory rape.

• Doris Ray Williams Jr., 41, 130 Jones Drive Estates, Church Hill, who was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days probation for assault.

• Amy Michelle Carico, 32, no address available, who was sentenced to two years and one day in prison and fined $2,325 for maintaining a dwelling for drug use, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

• Linda Miracle Mooney, 26, 404 W. College St., Rogersville, who was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail and fined $100 for misdemeanor child abuse and neglect.

• Timothy Oliver Rimer, 19, 202 Persia Drive, Rogersville, who was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $100 for statutory rape.

• Jason Ryan Frazier, 28, 106 Price’s Grove Road, Lot 4, Rogersville, who was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $2,000 for delivery of marijuana.

• Kenneth Wayne Gosnell, 40, no address available, who was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $2,000 for sale of oxycodone.

• Allen Eugene Trent, 35, 944 Lee Valley Road, Eidson, who was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $2,225 for manufacturing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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