Carjacker who evaded police gets 30 years
Felon successfully avoided arrest after two car chases
An Albuquerque man who, from his prison cell, tricked federal officers out of $7,000 in a fake drug buy and then months later evaded police several times through wild police chases, some of which involved hostages, will spend the next 30 years in federal prison.
Kevin Folse, now 32, was sentenced Wednesday for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, two carjackings and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence stemming from two carjackings in 2015.
Folse had been charged with crimes related to a 2013 fake drug buy in which he arranged with an associate for the FBI to buy what they thought was cocaine. The associate made off with $7,000 and the agents, once they realized the drugs were fake, chased the drug delivery driver, who did not know his pursuers were FBI task force agents. A wild chase and crash ensued. Charges against the driver were dropped.
And ultimately charges against Folse in that case were also dropped. Folse was released from detention and back into Albuquerque community.
Albuquerque police investigating stolen vehicles encountered Folse on July 2, 2015, triggering two carjackings and wild chases through town.
First, Folse ran from police into a home where he took several people hostage. He, along with a female associate, then forced some of the hostages into a vehicle and on a chase that ended in a crash. Folse fled — successfully — on foot. Shortly after he evaded police, he carjacked another vehicle, forcing out a 13-yearold boy before fleeing — again successfully — from police.
The next night, Isleta police arrested him, but details of that arrest are unclear.
He was found guilty of these carjacking-related charges by a federal jury after a fourday trial in Albuquerque in October 2015.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge James Browning.