I-71 High Speed Chase Suspect Talks From Jail
Posted By: Lynn Giroud

He tied-up two women, stole their car and led police on a dangerous chase through rush hour traffic. Now he's telling his side of the story from jail.

It was a dramatic police chase along I-71 Friday, stretching from King's Island to Kenwood Towne Center. Behind the wheel was 20-year-old Adam Carpenter.

He's now in the Warren County jail on a half-million dollars bond.

In a jailhouse interview Tuesday, Carpenter said he wanted to escape Talbert House, a halfway house in Lebanon, before they sent him back to prison.

He says he was written-up too many times and was heading back to prison for five years for a probation violation.

So, he decided to make a run for it and head to his mother's house in Batavia.

"Either you're going to go to prison or try to get away," Carpenter said. "Just go home, go home pretty much. That's all I was thinking about, was going home".

Carpenter says he saw a home in Warren County and broke in.

"Then these ladies came home and started yelling and I picked up the gun and told them either come in the house or I was going to shoot them," said Carpenter.

"So they came in and I grabbed the car, the computer, and left," he continued, "and I taped them up, and that was that."

An off-duty officer spotted the stolen SUV on I-71 near King's Island and the chase began.

Carpenter says he tried to stop once.

"I pulled over, then everyone got out with their guns pointed at me and it kind of scared me a little – so, I just smashed the gas and kept going".

Carpenter showed little emotion as he watched the cruiser camera video.

During the chase, dozens of cars had to pull off the road – several of them crashed.

"I was trying my best not to hit nobody," said Carpenter.

With the help of stop-sticks, Carpenter's run from the law came to an end at the base of the Kenwood Towne Center.

After watching the video, Carpenter simply said, "I'm sorry for what I did".

Carpenter is due back in court for a preliminary hearing next week.

Escapee caught after chase
BY QUAN TRUONG | QTRUONG@ENQUIRER.COM

Margaret Brooks’ voice trembled Friday afternoon as she told police she had been tied up and robbed by an intruder.

Her emotional 911 call led to a high-speed chase across two counties, several crashed cars on Interstate 71 and the arrest of an escaped inmate at gunpoint in Kenwood. (Site of arrest)

The Warren County Sheriff’s Office identified the inmate as Adam E. Carpenter, 20, of New Richmond, who escaped at 8:30 a.m. Friday from the Community Correctional Center on Ohio 63 in Turtlecreek Township. He was serving time for multiple theft offenses.

From a neighbor’s house about a mile from the facility, Brooks, 52, of Turtlecreek Township, called 911 about 2:45 p.m., saying a man she didn’t know had broken into her home on Ohio 63, tied her up along with her sister at gunpoint and stole her sister’s SUV. Police said a neighbor, Madonna Woebkenberg, was also tied up after the three women walked in on Carpenter burglarizing the house.

“He said he just got out of prison a couple of days ago and his sister is in the hospital because she OD’d on heroin and that’s why he said he was doing it,” Brooks frantically told a dispatcher.

During the weepy 6½-minute call, Brooks also said the man took her computer and her sister’s personal items. The woman told the dispatcher her sister, who has a heart condition, was still tied up.

“He left at 2:47 (p.m.) as I was untying myself,” she said. “He has a gun and I know he has two shells.” Police said a shotgun was also taken from the home.

That’s what a Warren County dispatcher told off-duty Hamilton Township officer Lisa Elliot, who spotted the SUV on Ohio 48 half an hour later while she was driving her personal pickup truck on her way to work. Telephone recordings released by the sheriff’s department showed Elliot continued to follow the SUV for nearly 10 minutes.

“You know he has a shotgun, right?” the dispatcher asked her.

“I’m aware of it,” Elliot said. “I’m not staying real close.”

She eventually trailed the white Chevy TrailBlazer onto I-71 south, going up to 90 mph.

Mason police and county deputies first caught up to the TrailBlazer near the Kings Island exit and tried to pull it over.

“He’s running, he’s running … they’re in pursuit,” Elliot told the dispatcher.

The driver not only kept going but sped up, said sheriff’s Maj. John Newsom. At that point, officers threw out Stop Sticks, which punctured the SUV’s front tires. Police said Carpenter continued driving on the vehicle’s rims for several miles.

The high-speed chase continued into Hamilton County, where the SUV crashed into several southbound cars. The heavily damaged SUV stopped at the Montgomery Road exit ramp in Kenwood shortly after its hood flew up. During the chase, up to five cars were damaged on southbound I-71, police said, most or all of them hit by the speeding SUV.

Footage from Artimis cameras showed the driver as he emerged from the SUV with his hands up, held at gunpoint. He quickly laid on the ground and was taken into custody , though police said they used Tasers when Carpenter did not comply with deputies’ verbal demands.

Carpenter complained of chest pains and was taken to University Hospital. He was later released and taken to the Warren County jail. He was and charged with aggravated burglary and felonious assault; more charges are expected. Bond was set at $500,000 cash.

As police investigated, traffic backed up along the highway for two hours during afternoon rush hour.

One after another, tow trucks pulled away from the scene with several mangled cars, including the white TrailBlazer.

No names of other drivers were released Friday night, but police said none of them was seriously injured.