World Courant
The hunt for a fugitive who spent weeks on the run after allegedly calling in a bear assault to cowl up a homicide got here to a detailed after he was acknowledged at a hospital this weekend.
Nicholas Wayne Hamlett pretended to be a person named Brandon Andrade when he dialed 911 round 11:34 p.m. on Oct. 24 and informed police he was injured and trapped in a physique of water after a bear chased him off a cliff whereas mountaineering in Hamilton County, Tennessee, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace wrote in a Fb submit on the time.
Authorities traced the decision to an space close to Tellico Plains, northeast of Chattanooga. There, they discovered a bloodied corpse with Andrade’s ID – however accidents to the physique weren’t in line with a bear assault or a fall from a excessive peak, authorities mentioned, and the physique was not Andrade’s. The sheriff’s workplace mentioned the sufferer was later recognized as 34-year-old Knoxville resident Steven Douglas Lloyd.
“Nicholas Wayne Hamlett met Steven, befriended him, and lured him right into a wooded space to take Steven’s life and his identification,” the sheriff’s workplace mentioned in a Fb submit on Nov. 4.
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Steven Douglas Lloyd was killed in Monroe County, Tennessee.
Police mentioned they later realized that Andrade’s ID had been stolen by Hamlett and was used a number of instances. Police imagine Hamlett stole the ID to flee parole after which faked his dying for an unknown purpose.
On Sunday night, authorities in Columbia, South Carolina, notified the Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace that that they had discovered their “armed and harmful” fugitive at an area hospital, the Tennessee company wrote in a Fb submit.
“We wish to thank the information media for sharing Hamlett’s needed poster all through the nation,” the workplace wrote. “The sharing of Hamlett’s needed poster led the general public, whom is our Most worthy useful resource, to behave as our eyes and ears. After observing Hamlett at an area hospital, citizen alerted the authorities and introduced this manhunt to a peaceable finish.”
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Members of the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Workplace joined Tennessee authorities on Oct. 30 at a press convention, urging the general public to search for Hamlett and for the fugitive to show himself in.
“Nick. Let’s finish this peacefully. Flip your self in. Have your day in court docket,” Joseph Carrico, the particular agent accountable for the FBI’s Nashville discipline workplace, mentioned on the press convention.
“The lengthy arm of the legislation has an extended and large attain, and we’ll discover you irrespective of the place you conceal. The deputies and investigators right here now know their county nicely. The TBI brokers know their state nicely. The FBI and the Marshal Service know the nation nicely and have attain internationally. So there’s nowhere to cover,” Carrico continued.
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Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was needed for first-degree homicide in Monroe County, Tennessee. He allegedly stole the identification of Brandon Andrade and claimed to be Andrade when he referred to as 911 posing as a hiker who had been chased off a cliff by a bear. (Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace)
Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones mentioned beforehand that Hamlett and Lloyd knew one another for “fairly a couple of months” earlier than the assault passed off.
Hamlett, 45, used a pretend identify when police questioned him about his 911 name, they mentioned. Authorities imagine he has deserted his Tennessee residence and say that he additionally has connections in Alabama, Montana, Alaska, Kentucky and Florida.
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“There’s a threat to the general public, an amazing threat to the general public,” Jones mentioned. “The offender, he does have a historical past. He did know this sufferer. He has recognized him for fairly a couple of months now. However sure, there’s a threat of the general public. This was not remoted incident by any means.”
The U.S. Marshals Service supplied a $5,000 reward for info resulting in the needed man.
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Nicholas Hamlett is suspected of homicide in Tennessee. (Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace)
In 2009, Hamlett was arrested in Niceville, Florida, after he lured a person into the woods in Alabama, in keeping with WBS.
Hamlett held the Alabama man at gunpoint and tried to strike him with a baseball bat earlier than burying him within the woods, AL.com reported. He used the identify Joshua Jones when he reached out to that sufferer so “he may get some insurance coverage,” in keeping with court docket paperwork reviewed by the outlet.
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Tellico Plains in East Tennessee, within the area the place Nicholas Hamlett disappeared. (Amy Smotherman Burgess/Knoxville Information Sentinel through USA TODAY NETWORK)
Hamlett was charged with tried homicide and kidnapping in 2012, however pleaded to the lesser offense of felony assault and was sentenced to twenty years in jail. He had 4 prior felony convictions, in keeping with Alabama court docket data.
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Hamlett faces expenses of first-degree homicide within the unidentified man’s dying, in keeping with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Arrest made after small mountain city slaying staged as bear assault
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