Staff report

Robbery suspect Randy Earl Asbury, 61, was arrested about 11:30 Wednesday night by Davidson County Sheriff’s deputies during a traffic stop in Lexington.

He is charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle and misdemeanor larceny. He is accused of robbing Welcome’s NewBridge Bank on Old Highway 52 on Tuesday.

He is also wanted on a federal warrant for escaping from prison.

Asbury was the subject of a manhunt that extended into Rowan County on Tuesday and into Wednesday after Asbury crashed a stolen car on a frontage road near the East Spencer exit on Interstate 85.

He robbed the bank armed with a knife and left with an unknown amount of cash, authorities said.

Multiple agencies were involved in the search, including the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, East Spencer and Spencer Police, Landis Police, the N.C. Department of Public Safety and the N.C. Highway Patrol. Helicopters were used to search the area, as well.

Asbury escaped from Federal Correctional Institution Gilmer, a medium security prison in West Virginia, on June 24, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was reportedly supposed to appear at a halfway house.

Asbury was serving time in the West Virginia prison following a 2003 arrest in Rowan County after he robbed two Lexington banks. In that incident, Asbury led deputies on a high-speed chase across the county line before he slammed into a cable barricade on I-85 in Salisbury.

Police arrested a bloodied, then 49-year-old Asbury, who crashed the getaway car, a Mazda Protege that he’d test driven. He’d robbed Lexington State Bank in Davidson County and earlier in the week robbed a different Lexington State Bank. Asbury nearly ran over a Salisbury Police officer who had deployed stop sticks in that incident.

Asbury’s first court date for the most recent charges will be Aug. 17.