Felon Flee Fizzles: Foot Chase, Fence Jump, and Stolen Firearm Foiled in Summerfield
What started as a routine traffic stop on a gold Toyota with a suspiciously obscured license plate quickly turned into a wild foot chase, a cache of drugs, and a stolen firearm being discovered. Marion County deputies pulled the vehicle over near the 14200 block of Southeast 100th Avenue in Summerfield on September 7, 2024, when the fun began.
Cortney Terry, the passenger with an apparent aversion to staying seated, decided to make a break for it, fleeing on foot after the car crept to a stop at a dead end. His bold escape attempt included a privacy fence leap worthy of the Olympics. Unfortunately for him, K-9 Benno and a team of deputies were hot on his tail, and Terry’s grand run didn’t get him far. Deputies eventually nabbed him, recovering his black hat, his stolen Taurus 9mm handgun, and a stash of narcotics along the way.
It turns out Terry wasn’t just running from the stop. The driver, visibly shaken, told deputies that Terry had pulled a gun on her, demanding she keep driving while stuffing drugs between the seat and console. His plan to avoid jail by keeping her behind the wheel failed spectacularly. When questioned further, the driver revealed that Terry wasn’t just her terrifying passenger—he was also a convicted felon with a rap sheet longer than the chase itself, including everything from weapons charges to selling heroin.
When deputies finally caught up with Terry, they found him with a pocketful of pills that tested positive for MDMA. Oh, and that stolen gun? It was swiped from Ocala. Terry tried his best to throw the deputies off by giving a fake name, but the jig was up once they ID’d him through their system.
Terry now faces a laundry list of charges, including aggravated assault, grand theft, possession of a firearm by a felon, and drug possession. For a guy who wasn’t “going back to jail,” his next stop is looking a lot like a jail cell.
