Suspect in wild motor home chase across L.A. and Kern counties to be arraigned
A registered sex offender and parolee who led police on a wild pursuit in a motor home before escaping on foot last week is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges that he kidnapped his two young children.
Stephen Houk, 46, who was wanted on suspicion of violations including child abduction and child endangerment, was arrested May 3 after police found him hiding inside an empty rail car in Barstow.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged Houk with two counts each of kidnapping, child abuse, injuring a spouse and child detention, and one count each of assault with a firearm, criminal threats, fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s motor vehicle and possession of a firearm by a felon, Greg Risling, a spokesman for the office, said in a statement.
Houk had been on the run for nearly two days last week and attempted to flee to Arizona on a train before authorities from multiple law enforcement agencies were able to catch up to him, officials said.
The pursuit that led to his escape began May 1 after Houk got into a heated argument with the mother of his two children inside the family’s RV in Malibu, Risling said in the statement.
At one point Houk allegedly pointed a loaded firearm at the woman and threatened to kill her and harm their children, the statement said. Authorities said he pushed the woman out of the motor home and drove off with their 3-year-old-son and 1-year-old daughter.
The chase ensued after Houk fled from Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who spotted the RV in the Culver City area, authorities said.
The pursuit lasted nearly four hours with police following Houk’s vehicle north on Interstate 5 and eventually north on Highway 99 through Bakersfield. He eventually found himself in a rural area and starting driving through an almond orchard before his motor home got stuck on soggy ground, authorities said.
He escaped, leaving his two children in the vehicle, and took cover under foliage in the orchard, said Capt. Eddie Hernandez of the Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau.
The children were found unharmed inside the vehicle.
Prosecutors are recommending bail be set at $1 million, Risling said in the statement.
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