Murphy – Kevin Vanover is no stranger to the criminal justice system. As someone with in-custody experience from county jails to federal prison, he knows the rules inmates have to follow and has no love for law enforcement.
However, Vanover is willing to break a cardinal rule – no snitching, and he did so twice – because the inmate he snitched on was a danger to society, and the detention officer who died at that inmate’s hands was so well respected by other inmates at the Cherokee County Detention Center.
On June 30, 2025, Detention Officers Francisco Flattes and George Feinauer escorted prisoner Kelvin Simmons, then 49, of Concord, to an appointment with an orthopedist at 75 Medical Park Lane in Peachtree for injuries from Simmons’ 2024 escape attempt from the Cherokee County Detention Facility. Simmons was a federal inmate who was being held in Cherokee County on bank robbery and kidnapping charges out of Buncombe County.
A grand jury indictment said Simmons assaulted and shoved Feinauer “over a wheelchair, stealing his service weapon,” then shot and killed Flattes.
According to court records, Simmons then stole a car at gunpoint from a woman at the medical office and led law enforcement on a chase across three counties before he was stopped and captured just west of Franklin in Macon County.
Eight federal charges Simmons faces include first-degree felony murder of an officer or employee of the United States, a charge that carries a possible death sentence; along with attempted carjacking resulting in death; escape; attempted carjacking; carjacking; use of a firearm in connection with a crime of violence; assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer; and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On Dec. 20, 2024, Simmons pleaded guilty in Cabarrus County to two counts related to his one-person crime spree in 2023 in the Asheville area. It was because of those charges that Simmons was being held at the Cherokee County Detention Center, which at that time held federal defendants as well as prisoners from Cherokee and surrounding counties.
The earlier charges included second-degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Following the Oct. 7, 2025, federal grand jury indictment in the Flattes homicide, federal prosecutors requested that the court incorporate both cases and that Simmons remain in federal custody until both cases are fully resolved. The court agreed to “incorporate by reference” the earlier case with the charges related to his deadly escape attempt.
Penalties in the deadly escape attempt range from 7 years to life for the lesser charges, to life in prison or death and a $250,000 fine for the Flattes slaying. His 2023 case was one of four sentencing factors listed making his case eligible for a death penalty.
An earlier escape attempt
Vanover, 45, of Ranger, has charges over the years ranging from marijuana cultivation to federal weapons violations. He has no convictions for violent behavior and stands against what he describes as civil rights violations by local law enforcement officials, including Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith. Vanover and his wife, Meredith Yates, are trying to sue Smith and others in federal court.
Vanover was being held at the Cherokee County Detention Center when Simmons started planning an escape. Simmons saw no end to imprisonment and started making desperate plans.
Vanover was staying in a pod that was well run by the inmates. Rules included religious tolerance, giving older inmates the bottom bunks, no stealing and, of course, no snitching.
Vanover noticed that although Simmons used a wheelchair while in custody from injuries related to the bank robbery, he would exercise when detention officers weren’t around. Vanover suspected Simmons was keeping in shape for a jail escape.
Simmons’ bunk mate came over to the pod leadership and relayed information that disturbed them all. Simmons wasn’t just planning an escape – he would go to the first house he finds, steal a car and kill anyone who got in his way, even women and children.
Simmons had been stuffing playing cards into the lock mechanism on the door leading from their pod to the outdoor recreation area. He planned to disable the lock, open the door, run across the recreation yard and escape over the fence.
Avoiding lockdown
What also bothered Vanover and the other prisoners was that, if Simmons escaped, the detention center would go on lockdown. Inmates would lose privileges. That includes television time and, most importantly for Vanover, telephone contact with his wife, Meredith, his lifeline and comfort.
Disguising his handwriting, Vanover wrote a note and acted as if he was passing a letter to a guard to be mailed, complete with stamp.
The note didn’t identify Simmons by name, but it could only have been him – it described the guy in a wheelchair, and Simmons was the only one who fit that description. The note left out details about killing women and children. It just said a wheelchair-bound prisoner was planning an escape by disabling the lock.
After passing the note through a door to a detention officer, Vanover heard staff descend on the recreation area door and repair the lock.
Simmons begged tearfully to remain in his pod. He was sorry and didn’t want to leave the pod, he told the pod leaders.
They let him remain under the condition that he get nowhere near the exterior door.
“We liked him,” Vanover said about Simmons. “He ran a good card table.”
In October 2024, Simmons was out in the recreation yard with other prisoners. As they returned inside, Simmons turned and ran, scaling the fence, which was topped with razor wire. Though similar to his earlier planned attempt, he had to work around his plan to disable the door lock.
Simmons suffered severe lacerations during the attempt and required hospitalization as a result.
During a follow-up doctor’s visit on June 30, 2025, for injuries from his 2024 escape attempt, Simmons allegedly incapacitated one detention officer, grabbed a pistol and shot Flattes in his chest.
Two days after the shooting, Vanover contacted law enforcement and said he had information to share about Simmons – an earlier escape plan that was foiled by a note. Vanover later worked with the U.S. attorney and believes his testimony could help federal prosecutors prove premeditation, a key element in a death penalty case.
On the record
Over the past year, Vanover spoke with the Cherokee Scout on several occasions about his experiences with local law enforcement, including one time when he spoke of his knowledge about Simmons’ case, although off the record.
In December, Vanover contacted the Scout again, saying he was ready to talk about Kelvin Simmons on the record.
What changed?
Flattes was the best law enforcement officer in Cherokee County for decades, Vanover said. In terms of compassion and professionalism, Flattes had no comparison.
“I couldn’t say enough good about Flattes,” Vanover said.
Vanover wishes the note he passed to the guard that thwarted Simmons’ first escape attempt had been more explicit. He wishes he had identified Simmons by name and included that Simmons would not stop at killing women and children. Perhaps then local law enforcement would have taken the threat more seriously.
He confessed that he was more worried about losing privileges.
“Flattes was such a good man,” Vanover said. “I should have done more. Kelvin Simmons needs to be put somewhere he’s never in a situation to do that again, or face the death penalty.”
Vanover was specifically annoyed by Smith’s responses to cases like jail escapes – there have been three since Smith became sheriff, including two by Simmons – and a SWAT raid off Lower Bear Paw Road that resulted in a $10 million settlement in federal civil court against law enforcement.
“When is it ever Dustin’s fault?” Vanover said.
He said senior sheriff’s office personnel received new cars, while detention officers went without protective gear that could have saved Flattes’ life.
“Where there’s dog (feces), there’s going to be a dog somewhere,” Vanover said.