Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992 TAG: 9203250232
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Lt. Jackie Roop said warrants have been obtained against Michael L. Ayers, 29, and will be served on him at the Roanoke County Jail.
Richard Thornton, 31, an employee at Central Lumber, said Tuesday that he was leaving the store at First and Bolling streets Monday morning to make a delivery when a man came running up to the small dump truck he was driving.
He said the man forced the truck door open and told him to move over.
"I told him I couldn't give him the truck, then we struggled a little bit for the truck," before officers arrived.
Thornton said the man was "right on my lap" in the truck. "It was real fast - didn't even have time to think," Thornton said.
"I thought somebody got hurt or needed some help," Thornton said. "But when I saw the officers, I knew what was going on."
Radford Police Cmdr. Jonny Butler said Ayers was recaptured by Sgt. J.F. Lawson and Detective Wayne Frye.
Ayers had been brought to Radford from the Roanoke County Jail for a hearing on charges of grand larceny, petty larceny and destruction of property at the Super 8 Motel on Tyler Avenue.
But authorities said Ayers escaped before his cases were heard by climbing through a ceiling and into another witness room, then breaking the glass out of a window.
The Radford Sheriff's Department has obtained warrants charging Ayers with escape and destruction of city property.
Meanwhile, Ayers was in Roanoke Circuit Court on Tuesday afternoon to plead no contest to a charge of grand larceny.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom said Ayers received six months in jail for taking a vehicle and a trolling motor last July from the lot of Advantage Marine on Campbell Avenue Southeast.
Branscom said Ayers was arrested after police found his fingerprint on a boat in the business' lot.
Ayers was the subject of a six-day police hunt in January by U.S. marshals and Bedford and Botetourt county and Vinton town authorities. He was wanted at the time in connection with several federal charges and grand larcenies in the Roanoke Valley.
He was indicted by a Bedford County grand jury this month on two counts of breaking and entering and two counts of grand larceny. Ayers is accused of breaking into a Bedford County church, taking jewelry from a Bedford County home and stealing a car.
Staff writer Laurence Hammack contributed information to this report.
by CNB