An Oneida man who was the subject of a two-day manhunt in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area is now facing yet another charge, in addition to his original charges and the ones that resulted from his flight from police and the ensuing manhunt.
Kody L. Terry, 31, was charged with felony theft on Saturday, exactly one week after he was apprehended by law enforcement near the east entrance to the Big South Fork NRRA west of Oneida.
According to a warrant filed by Oneida Police Department Investigator Andy Davis, it is alleged that Terry phoned a woman from jail on Feb. 22, one day after his arrest, and told her that he had taken her belongings from a storage unit and locked them inside another building.
OPD investigators worked with the Scott County Sheriff’s Office to review the alleged telephone conversation, and the warrant stated that Terry told the woman that he thought she had taken his car keys and his car, so he had taken all the items from her storage unit and placed them in another building, to which he was the only one with a key.
The total value of the stolen items was more than $9,000 — including a washer and dryer, a mattress set and various other furniture and household items.
Terry and another man, David D. Bell, 22, of Murfreesboro, were arrested on the morning of Feb. 20 after fleeing law enforcement officers for a second time in as many days.
The two had originally fled from an OPD officer attempting a traffic stop in the Coopertown area, leading police on a chase along S.R. 297 into the Big South Fork NRRA and then back towards Oneida, along Toomey Road, and down the O&W to its terminus at North White Oak Creek.
When the men’s vehicle became stuck while attempting to cross the creek, they fled on foot and spent the night in the woods, building a fire to stay warm before hiking into Jamestown the following morning.
It was around mid-morning on Feb. 20 that National Park Service rangers saw the men in the back of a pickup truck traveling S.R. 297 towards Oneida. The men fled into the forest again, but were later apprehended without further incident.
The men were charged with felony evading arrest.
