NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A video-game store worker who fled authorities while he awaited trial on child rape charges was returned to Nashville Thursday after his capture in East Tennessee.
Jeremy Duffer, 35, of Nashville, was captured Wednesday night while working at a traveling carnival in Roane County, said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron.
Duffer has been missing since February after he cut off an electronic monitoring device while he was awaiting trial on charges of child rape and aggravated sexual battery involving a boy who was 12 years old at the time.
Upon his return to Nashville, Duffer said he fled because his lawyer told him his case was a lost cause.
"Because they're going to crucify me and act like I'm a horrible, evil, nasty person and basically my lawyer told me I didn't have a chance in hell," Duffer said in a WTVF-TV report.
A co-worker at the carnival became suspicious of Duffer after he asked where he could get a tattoo removed, police said.
Aaron said that Duffer initially gave a fake name to a Roane County Deputy sheriff's deputy, but his mother later revealed Duffer's real name.
Police used Duffer's picture on billboards in Nashville to solicit information on his whereabouts.
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