A car thief will be calling prison home for Christmas for well over a decade after he was given 15 years for his latest grand theft auto.
The man, Billy Dwayne Adams, 38, entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of theft over $10,000, theft, and driving on a suspended license. He was sentenced to 15 years in the state penitentiary under the persistent offender guideline which means he will not be eligible for parole until he serves at least 40 percent of his sentence.
Adams was also on parole at the time of his arrest resulting in a violation of his parole. He will serve his parole time in addition to his new prison time. He owed the state up until 2025 on a sentence handed to him in 2008, which means he could have 10 more years added to his total time from his probation violation.
His latest brush with the law came during a routine traffic stop when he was pulled over in the Northgate Center parking lot. During the traffic stop, lawmen found he was wanted in Davidson County so they arrested him on those outstanding warrants. It was at that point they also found he was driving on a revoked license, a license that had been revoked for nearly 15 years.
“It was revoked out of Florida in 2000 for theft of a vehicle,” said sheriff’s investigator Jody Cavanaugh.
Officers did a check on the vehicle identification number of the 2012 Nissan Altima that Adams was driving and learned it had been stolen in Nashville two weeks earlier. The vehicle, however, did not match up to the tag number.
“The tag that was displayed on the vehicle was reported stolen in Warren County,” Cavanaugh said, noting it came up missing a week before.
His sentence will also be increased by any time he gets out of Davidson County for stealing the Altima.