Simmons
Asheville – A former Cherokee County jail prisoner accused of killing a guard during an escape attempt while at a doctor’s visit now faces federal charges, including a murder charge that could result in a death penalty if convicted.
On June 30, Detention Officers Francisco Flattes and George Feinauer escorted prisoner Kelvin Simmons, 49, of Concord, to an appointment with an orthopedist at 75 Medical Park Lane in Peachtree for injuries stemming from Simmons’ 2024 escape attempt from the Cherokee County Detention Center in Murphy.
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 stole a car at gunpoint from a woman who was at the medical office, then led law enforcement officials on a chase across three counties before he was stopped and captured just west of Franklin in Macon County.
Simmons was a federal inmate who was being held in Cherokee County for bank robbery and kidnapping charges out of Buncombe County.
Eight federal charges Simmons now 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 holds 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. He awaits sentencing in that case.
Following the Oct. 7 federal grand jury indictment in Flattes’ homicide, federal prosecutors requested that the court incorporate both cases and 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 seven 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.