Escaped inmate captured in Granville County

An inmate who escaped from Cunningham Research Station in Kinston Thursday afternoon was taken into custody early Friday morning, authorities with the Granville County Sheriff's Office said. 

Authorities captured Donnie Travis, 38, shortly after midnight in a wooded area near N.C. Highway 158 and Interstate 85 in Granville County. Granville County Sheriff Brindel Wilkins said Travis rammed a cruiser with a stolen truck when he was spotted at the Hasty Mart in Oxford around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

Before Travis was able to exit the parking lot of the gas station, he wrecked the truck along an embankment and ran into a wooded area parallel to I-85, Wilkins said. He was captured about two hours later. No injuries were reported.

Travis, a minimum-custody inmate assigned to the Duplin Correctional Center in Kenansville, was serving a maximum sentence of 22 months for larceny and communicating threats. He was scheduled to be released in March 2013. 

After taking Travis into custody early Friday, the Granville County Sheriff's Office charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill and two counts of property damage.

He will also face charges of larceny of a motor vehicle and escape from prison in Lenoir.