Tennessee Prison Escape: Inmate Steals Marked Work Truck

Jacob Allen Morley is on the run in Tennessee after escaping from prison on Sunday night.

The 28-year-old inmate was serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of Cody Birchfield. He broke out of the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Staff found Morley missing during a count at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. Security footage showed him cutting through a fence while still wearing his prison clothes. By 1 a.m. Monday, investigators tracked him to the 400 block of Keystone Drive, about two miles south of the facility.

Morley stole a white 2008 Ford F-350 on that street. The truck displays the name Lindamood Planting Company on its side and carries an air compressor in the bed. It is registered with Tennessee license plate 138BBQV.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation listed Morley on the state's most wanted list. They describe him as dangerous. He stands 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 240 pounds. He has brown hair and green eyes.

Beyond the first-degree murder conviction, Morley was found guilty of burglary, vandalism, tampering with evidence, and evading arrest in 2025. Birchfield vanished in early February 2022 after being last seen in Elizabethton. Carter County Sheriff's Office investigators found signs of a violent crime inside the victim's home.

Police arrested Morley on March 2, 2022, following a chase that reached the North Carolina border. His body was later discovered under Morley's house. During the trial, his former girlfriend Landree Sheperd testified that he told her he had killed Birchfield. Federal and state law enforcement agencies are now assisting in the search. The public can call 844-832-3463 with information.