04/13/17 — Inmate, wife charged after botched escape attempt

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Inmate, wife charged after botched escape attempt

By John Joyce
Published in News on April 13, 2017 4:02 PM

Layla Perkins

Joseph Perkins

An ill-fated escape attempt landed a Pikeville couple in jail Thursday morning after officials said the wife tried to free her husband from an inmate work detail.

The couple were apprehended separately within about an hour of the attempted jailbreak.

According to a Wayne County Sheriff's Office press release, Joseph Doyle Perkins, 20, of 174 Wilbert Lane in Pikeville is charged with felony escape from a local confinement facility, assault of a law enforcement officer and resisting, obstructing or delaying an officer.

Layla Perkins, 22, of the same address, is charged with aiding and abetting a felony escape from a local confinement facility, providing tobacco products to an inmate of a local confinement center, driving while license revoked and displaying an expired registration tag.

Maj. Tom Effler said Perkins had been in jail since March 20. He was being held under a $32,500 secured bond on earlier charges of three counts of probation violation and a failure to appear warrant on charges of obtaining property by false pretense, a press release said.

Perkins was at the same time serving a 60-day sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

At about 9 a.m., Mrs. Perkins drove a gold Ford Fusion to the Dudley area where her husband and other inmates were working a roadside detail cleaning up trash, the sheriff's office said.

Perkins was able to get into the car and the couple drove off, according to the release.

Detention officers immediately radioed in the escape, and a nearby deputy was able to locate the car and pull the couple over.

While trying to get Perkins back in custody, Deputy Michael Blyer became involved in a scuffle with him and lost hold of him.

"He was trying to handcuff him, and (Perkins) was trying not to be handcuffed," Maj. Tom Effler said.

"The deputy wasn't hurt. (Perkins) was trying to get away from him, and he did."

Perkins disappeared into the woods, resulting in a manhunt that forced three area schools -- Brogden Primary, Brogden Middle and Southern Wayne High School -- to go into soft lockdowns.

Wayne County Public Schools officials have in the past described "soft lockdowns" to mean the doors are locked and  no one is allowed in or out, but that classes continue and students are allowed to move freely between classes at the bell.

Several more deputies responded along with the N.C. State Highway Patrol. Additional units included K--9 officers and the sheriff's office helicopter unit.

A state trooper eventually located Perkins in the woods near the intersection of Swinson Drive and Club Knolls Road about an hour and a half after the initial escape and held him there until backup could arrive. Perkins was taken into custody and charged.

In addition to the added charges, Perkins now has another $25,000 secured bond in place. Mrs. Perkins' bond has been set at $5,000 secured.

In an earlier statement, Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said over the two years the roadside cleanup program has been in existence, more than 30,000 bags of trash have been picked up without incident prior to Thursday's escape attempt.