Joel/Jinks Joseph Elvin Pate is from the family of Nathaniel Pate b 1810 TN......you have them listed as TN60 He was my Uncle. Carolyn Moore >From THE KOKOMO TRIBUNE.................KOKOMO, INDIANA Suspect caught in Arizona Publication date: Thursday, January 23, 2003 By MIKE FLETCHER Tribune staff writer A convicted killer wanted for questioning in the death of a 70-year-old Kokomo man and the disappearance of his wife was captured by police Wednesday in Arizona after a pursuit and a brief gunfight. Kokomo police said Jerry R. Brackett, 43, formerly of Cass County, went to the home of Joseph and Mary Jo Pate Monday, stole the couple's Chevrolet van and abducted Mary Jo Pate. Officers began searching for Brackett after they found Joseph Pate dead in his Kokomo home at 1508 E. Harris St. late Tuesday, and his 57-year-old wife missing, KPD Lt. Donald Whitehead said. Pate's death remains under investigation. As Kokomo detectives scoured Pate's one-story, southside home at the corner of Harris and Laguna streets for clues Wednesday, police in Arizona found Brackett and Mary Jo Pate and the Pates' Chevrolet van, Whitehead reported. Police in northern Arizona spotted the van Wednesday and initiated a traffic stop. Whitehead said Mary Jo Pate had been inside the van at one point and managed to escape at a rest stop in Arizona. She told police Brackett had come to her Kokomo home Monday and kidnapped her, the detective said. Her condition was not released. As police pursued the van, the driver and police exchanged gunfire. An Arizona officer was injured when he was struck by the van during the pursuit, Whitehead said. Michael Marizco, a police reporter for the Daily Sun in northern Arizona, said Wednesday the officer was not critically injured. The chase continued for a short time, then ended when the van slammed into a tree, Marizco said. Brackett ran and was shot in the upper torso and left arm by the officers before being captured, Marizco said. At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Brackett was captured and taken into custody. The Daily Sun said police transported Brackett by police helicopter to a Phoenix hospital for treatment. The newspaper also said Brackett most likely will be charged with attempted homicide for allegedly using a vehicle as a weapon against the officer. Kokomo police did not say what charges Brackett will face when he is returned. Calls made to the Yavapai County Sheriff Department in Arizona went unanswered Wednesday. Kokomo officers went to the Pates' home at 11 p.m. Tuesday at the request of family members, who called police after several days of failed attempts to contact the couple. Police said Brackett was a friend of the Pates, and they believed he had been in contact with the couple recently. An autopsy on Joseph Pate's body was conducted Wednesday, but a cause of death remains under investigation pending microscopic tissue examinations, Howard County Coroner Brad Bray said. Investigators are hoping the tests will shed some light on how Pate died. Results of the tests are expected in a day or two, Bray said. At the Kokomo home, police are not saying if there were signs of a struggle because the investigation is ongoing. Howard County/Kokomo Emergency Management officers kept a watch on the Harris Street house from late Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon to ensure no one entered. Detectives also searched the house for additional clues. Jerry Brackett's past According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, Jerry Brackett was convicted in 1984 of second-degree murder in the slaying of his nephew. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Brackett escaped March 16, 1988, from Haywood Correctional Facility in North Carolina while serving his sentence. >From 1991 to 1997, Brackett resided in Galveston under the alias Roy Valentine, according to a 1997 Kokomo Tribune article about Brackett's arrest in Cass County. Before the 1988 escape, Brackett also had escaped in 1985 from Henderson Correctional Facility in North Carolina. Cass County police recaptured Brackett in 1997 on a warrant charge of perjury alleging he had made false written statements at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The Federal Bureau of Investigation determined Brackett's true identity after his fingerprints were taken at the Cass County Jail. Brackett was then extradited back to North Carolina to serve out his term. Brackett was released from prison Jan. 24, 2001, according to the NCDOC web site. The real Roy Valentine was murdered Dec. 25, 1975, in a Tennessee tavern. That murder has been solved and is not connected to Brackett, Lt. Rick Canfield of the Cass County Sheriff Department said in a previous Tribune story. Mike Fletcher, Tribune reporter, may be reached at 454-8565 or via e-mail at mike.fletcher@kokomotribune.com --End--