Man arrested after trying to sneak hacksaw blades into jail

By Abby Morris
Star Staff
amorris@starhq.com

   A North Carolina man was arrested Monday night after police found him trying to sneak two hacksaw blades and other prohibited items to inmates at the Carter County Jail.
   Delton Everett Barber, 28, 214 Lake Emory Rd., Apt. 1, Franklin, N.C., was arrested by Elizabethton Police Department Sgt. Jack Ramsey and charged with attempting to introduce weapons into a penal facility, resisting arrest, evading arrest and assault on a police officer.
   According to Ramsey's report, he was completing paperwork at the Carter County Sheriff's Department when the dispatcher on duty told him she saw, on the facility's security camera, a suspicious male trying to hide in the bushes outside the jail.
   "I ran around to the area and observed a black male subject huddled in the shadows formed by the wall and one of the buttresses, under a window," Ramsey said. "I saw a string leading from the window, which I knew to be to one of the jail blocks', to the subject."
   When Ramsey ordered the man to stop and tried to arrest him, Barber struggled with the officer. After a brief struggle, Barber broke free and fled the scene headed toward downtown Elizabethton.
   Ramsey notified other police officers of the chase, and EPD and CCSD officers helped him apprehend Barber, who was caught at the intersection of East E Street and North Pine Street by CCSD Lt. Rocky Croy. He was taken into custody without further incident and transported back to the Carter County Jail. "Deputy (Jesse) Booher, CCSD, advised me that he had recovered two hacksaw blades, two chainsaw files, a cellular telephone, and a quantity of loose tobacco from the area where I had attempted to detain Barber," Ramsey said.