FORT WORTH - A Wise County man who would have been on probation for his drug conviction will now have to spend six months in jail - all because he fled before hearing the verdict and was captured after a high-speech chase through three counties.

James Carroll Franklin, a 47-year-old air conditioning technician from Azle, apparently panicked after hearing prosecutors in the Decatur courtroom Wednesday urge jurors to sentence him to life in prison, said Franklin's attorney Jim Shaw.

Franklin, who was allowed to remain free after he was convicted of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, asked Shaw if he would be allowed time to see his daughter and take care of personal business. Shaw said he told Franklin probably not. But the attorney also said he explained to Franklin that he likely would get probation and a sentence of less than 10 years would allow him to go free on an appeal bond within 24 hours.

Franklin then went to the restroom, and less than five minutes later the jury returned with its verdict: a $1,000 fine and six years in prison, which they recommended be probated, Shaw said.

When the defendant couldn't be located, despite text messages from family members, Wise County deputies broadcast a radio message to stop him, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in its online edition Thursday.

Franklin then led authorities on a high-speed chase through Wise and Parker counties before he was captured in Tarrant County by officers who rammed his car and used a Taser stun gun on him when he resisted arrest, Shaw said.

Shaw said his client realized his mistake Thursday morning when the judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail as a condition of his 10-year probation. He also faces a felony charge of evading arrest in a motor vehicle, he said.

"He told me, 'I fouled up, didn't I?" Shaw said. "I said, ' Yea, legally you probably did."