Sheriff’s Office schedules 10 a.m. news conference
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
Previous coverage
* Rillo escapes, evades authorities
* Rillo sheds cuffs, sleeps in Norman church
ROCKINGHAM — Five Richmond County sheriff’s deputies greeted former fugitive John Adam Rillo at the sally port of the Richmond County Jail shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday.
Chief Deputy Mark Gulledge said there is a news conference scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the Sheriff’s Office in downtown Rockingham. It’s expected that authorities then will elaborate on how deputies captured Rillo near the Norman/Montgomery County border.
Rillo, 40, has been on the run from authorities since escaping from a deputy on July 11. That day, a deputy had arrived at this parent’s home on Cemetery Road in Norman to inquire about Rillo’s whereabouts. He was wanted on federal drug charges. It wasn’t known that Rillo was there initially. The deputy put Rillo in handcuffs and arrested him but Rillo slipped away by jumping into his parents’ dog pen — full of dogs not too pleased to see a sheriff’s deputy — and ran into dense woods nearby.
Until Thursday, authorities had indicated Rillo had been quiet. It had been rumored that he might have even fled the Norman area, his stomping grounds.
Four law enforcement officers were on hand inside the sally port by the Richmond County Jail to greet Rillo. Donning plastic gloves, it was said that Rillo had been less than cooperative with deputies once having been apprehended.
Rillo was arrested in December by Richmond County sheriff’s deputies. Deputies originally responded to an Ellerbe home to investigate a reported shooting. However, no one was injured and the alleged shooting quickly turned into an investigation of a possible meth lab after Deputy L.D. Cowick noticed there were materials in plain sight consistent with manufacturing methamphetamines.
Rillo, a convicted felon, was arrested and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of lithium metal — an immediate precursor chemical — with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine, maintaining a house that was used for keeping and selling controlled substances and possession of methamphetamine.
Rillo also was charged with possession of two firearms, including a 9 mm Glock allegedly stolen from Jerry Rillo, and a .22 revolver.
John Rillo was previously convicted in April 2004 in Randolph County on felony possession of stolen goods and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
In December, he was confined to Richmond County Jail and held on a $35,000 secured bond.