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Friday, October 01, 2004

Police show patience

Friend says man who has history of criminal charges 'snapped' under various pressures


Barricaded in his former employer's home at 8264 Louisville Road without water, electricity or telephone service, 41-year-old Russell Leroy Sublett of Smiths Grove continues his standoff with law enforcement officers today, despite his family and friends pleas for surrender.

Sublett was fired from his job as a farmhand on David Stewart's property about a month ago due to an altercation with a co-worker, according to Sublett's friends of nine years, Tommy and Melissa Cobb of Bowling Green.

Additionally, they said Sublett was experiencing difficulty in his relationship with his 12-year-old son from a previous marriage. The boy and his mother live in Glasgow.

Sublett became so distressed that he began hinting at the possibility of taking drastic action.

"He was just saying to me the other day, Don't be surprised if you see me on the news some time soon," Melissa Cobb said.

"He said if we saw him on the news, it would be over his kid or over (his being fired). That's when I said, Russ, don't do anything stupid."

Tommy Cobb described his friend as a "Christian fellow ... a really good person, generous and kind, though lacking a trust in people."

"He's snapped is what it is," he said.

Sublett's last visit to Warren County Regional Jail, in January, was in violation of a domestic violence order obtained by his wife, Liz Sublett, from whom he is separated.

Stewart posted the $10,000 unsecured bond to free Sublett from jail in relation to that charge, which was not his first domestic violence-related charge. Additionally, Sublett has charges, including wanton endangerment and receiving stolen property over $300, that date to 1992 in Barren County, where several of his family members reside.

In Warren County, Sublett has been previously indicted on charges of robbery, assault, wanton endangerment, resisting arrest and attempting to elude police, among others. The charges in Warren County date back to 1994.

"Sublett, I understand, has a lengthy, extensive criminal record," said Chris Cohron, Warren County first assistant commonwealth's attorney. "He was a known individual to all the agencies involved (in the standoff)."

Police are waiting for Sublett to surrender, though he continues to fire shots from within the house toward officers.

Police have repeatedly released chemicals and pepper spray into the house, but the effects are apparently minimized by the home's spacious design.

The brick, two-story home has five bathrooms, two fireplaces and about 12,746 square feet of living space.

Sublett's closest friends and family members have tried to coax him out of the home.

"A selected number of people have been chosen, have tried and failed and those are the people who are the closest blood relation to him," said Todd Holder, KSP public affairs officer. "Everybody's saying they can get him out. They know they can."

Tommy Cobb was one such person ; one of dozens of friends who offered to help police talk Sublett into a truce.

As he stood Thursday afternoon outside the crime scene tape, inquiring about his friend's condition, Cobb recalled the Sunday visit from Sublett during which the man dropped off his gray Chevrolet Silverado truck. Sublett said the family could have the truck in the event that anything happened to him.

"He kept making little insinuations to me," Cobb said, staring toward the house where his friend continued to shoot toward police. "If anything ever happens to me, this truck is yours, and so on. I never put it all together."

Officers began pursuing Sublett around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after he fled from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents who were attempting to serve a search warrant at a residence in Glasgow where Sublett was staying.

State police soon joined the chase, which wound down U.S. 68-Ky. 80 into Warren County. At the Interstate 65 interchange, KSP used stop sticks that partially disabled Sublett's El Camino, but didn't stop Sublett from continuing west on the highway until he hit an oncoming car.

Sublett, armed with a semiautomatic pistol, then abandoned his car in the middle of the road and began exchanging gunfire with officers. He carjacked a vehicle, throwing the female driver out.

No one was injured in the accident, gun battle or carjacking.

Sublett drove the stolen vehicle further down U.S. 68-Ky. 80, right onto U.S. 31-W north and, around 5:15 p.m., crashed into the front door of the approximate $800,000 home owned by Stewart.