Adam Thomas
The Rhea County Sheriff’s Department with the help of the Indiana State Police arrested a fugitive from Rhea County in Lafayette, Ind.
According to Detective Rocky Potter who heads the Sheriff’s Department's Special Victims Unit, Adam Thomas, who is originally from Rhea County, was arrested and brought back to Rhea County on three counts of rape of a child under the age of 13.
Det.
Potter said the investigation began in May of 2021 when he interviewed the victim at the Rhea County’s new Child Advocacy Center which is also known as “Landon’s Place” and is located behind the Rhea County Justice Center. Detective Potter said she gave clear details of three accounts. He said that Thomas came in contact with the victim who was a child of a woman he was dating at the time. Detective Potter says a Rhea County Grand Jury indicted Thomas for three child rape charges. He said Thomas was in a relationship with a woman for several months, and ended up raping a relative of that woman, a girl under the age of 13.
They were going to arrest Thomas when he came into court to plead to several other unrelated crimes.
Detective Potter said Thomas missed his court appearance and he received information that he moved to Indiana and got a job at a manufacturing plant to avoid his arrest.
Thomas has been brought back to Rhea County and remains in jail on no bond until his appearance in front of a Circuit Court judge.
Thomas has an extensiver criminal record with history in Rhea, Bradley and Hamilton counties. At his next appearance besides the rape charges, he will also face theft of property under $1,000, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving on revoked, resisting arrest, felony reckless endangerment, felony evading arrest, and simple possession.
The new child advocacy center is named after 5-year-old Spring City resident Landon Robbins, who was killed in 2013 after suffering what investigators called the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen.