Trimble escapee captured

A Louisville Metro Police Department post on social media Saturday announcing the capture of escapee Norman Kenneth Wolfe.

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The Louisville man who escaped from a Trimble Country Deputy Jailer last Thursday is back in custody after being arrested by Louisville Metro Police Department officers shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday.

Norman Kenneth Wolfe, 31, was arrested near a Thorntons gas and convenience store at Brownsboro Road and Lindsey Avenue in Louisville, about a mile from where he was last reported seen at River Road and Edith Road near Louisville Champions Park.

LMPD posted a photo of Wolfe in the back seat of a department cruiser just before 11 a.m. Saturday, noting that the escapee was back in custody.

Trimble County Jailer Bobby Temple said he had received a phoned call from LMPD confirming Wolfe’s capture and that Wolfe would be incarcerated at Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.

Wolfe had been on the run for about 48 hours since he kicked out a window in a Trimble jail transport vehicle, climbed halfway out of that SUV while it was traveling about 70 mph and fled Deputy Jailer Wayne Law near the intersection of Interstates 265 and 71 on Thursday morning. Shortly after fleeing from that scene, Wolfe allegedly kidnapped two people in the 8500 block of Brownsboro Road, near Goose Creek Road. He then allegedly forced them to drive him to an area near the intersection of River Road and Edith Road near Louisville Champions Park. The victims were unharmed.

At the time Wolfe escaped he was wearing orange jail clothing with a full head of long hair and a beard. The photo after his capture showed him in street clothes, with shorter hair and cleanly shaved but with some mud stains on his gray sweatshirt and pants. Temple said the change in appearance could be indication that at least someone had assisted Wolfe during his escape but that Wolfe is also obviously resourceful.

Temple provided some background on why Trimble County was transporting Wolfe. He said the inmate, who has been charged in a burglary at the PHARM CBD store near Bedford, was being transported from Louisville to the Oldham County Jail in Buckner for a video pre-trial appearance in Trimble Circuit Court.

Temple noted that Trimble often uses video court appearances in an effort to avoid having to transport inmates and take inmates in and out of secured holding areas. Trimble also often houses it inmates in Oldham County since Trimble does not have a jail. However, at the time of the hearing, Wolfe was an inmate in Louisville where he was facing additional felony charges.

“If he had been in Oldham County, there would have been no transport. He would have never left the jail for the hearing,” Temple noted.

Temple added that although Wolfe will obviously have future dates in Trimble Circuit Court, he will most likely remain incarcerated in Louisville where he faces the previous charges there as well as new charges stemming from the escape.

LMPD spokesman Aaron Ellis said last Thursday that Wolfe was currently charged with first-degree burglary, fleeing and evading police and for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm there. A search of court records in Indiana shows Wolfe has previous felony convictions in Clark and Johnson counties there for charges ranging from possession of methamphetamine to auto theft, domestic battery, resisting law enforcement and escape.