The man accused of stealing a Nissan XTerra from campus last October has been brought back to Jackson County to await trial.
James Roy Foyles, Jr., 31, was caught driving the stolen Xterra by the Highway Patrol in McDowell County, and transported to the county jail, where he stayed for nearly three months while the county authorities investigated him, according to Thomas Pruett, chief of university police.
Last October, eight days after Foyles was caught driving the XTerra and charged with larceny, a 2000 Mercury Sable was found at the Faculty Apartments. Upon checking the tag number, officers found that the car had been reported stolen from Budget Rent-a-Car in Asheville after Foyles rented the car but did not return it.
In late December, law enforcement in McDowell County contacted Pruett to inform him that he should transport Foyles to Jackson County so the suspect could be tried for the theft of the XTerra.
Before a trial date can be set in Foyles’ case, Pruett must go before the grand jury when it meets on January 29 and state the facts of the case. The jury must then decide whether there is probable cause to charge Foyles with the crime, and if so, the case is then scheduled for superior court, according to Pruett.
“It’ll be hard to speculate when they’ll set a trial for it, because usually murder trials take precedence over anything else, and it doesn’t seem like this guy is going to be willing to enter a plea,” said Pruett. “I’ve seen trials postponed six months, twelve months, and beyond.”
Foyles is also wanted for various crimes in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, and Madison counties, according to Pruett, and he will be transported from county to county as he is tried for these offenses.
“He’s not going to get out of jail for a good long time because he’s got so many things hanging over his head from different jurisdictions,” said Pruett.
After he is finally finished in the courts, the North Carolina Department of Corrections will send Foyles to one of the prisons in the system to serve his sentences.
