Desperate Flight Fails, 2 Caught in Utah : Suspects Believed to Have Stolen Truck, 2 Cycles in Orange County

Two teen-agers suspected of stealing a pickup truck and a couple of motorcycles in Orange County led police on a wild chase in Utah early Tuesday, repeatedly driving the wrong way on an interstate highway, hurtling medians and crashing through fences before they were captured.

Along the way, the two motorcycles bounced out of the rear of the truck. The truck was abandoned as police closed in, but the two suspects were discovered, with the help of a police dog, hiding among houses in a tiny subdivision south of Cedar City.

The chase began about 3:35 a.m. when Sgt. Kurt Wright saw the pickup truck speeding on State Street in the middle of Hurricane, a small southwestern Utah city near Zion National Park.

Wright gave this rendition of the chase and capture:

Wright attempted to stop the 1986 Nissan 4x4 pickup, unaware that it was stolen, but the vehicle speeded up and headed north out of town, onto Interstate 15, about 10 miles away.

As he chased the truck, northbound on the freeway, Wright notified the Utah highway patrol in Cedar City, about 40 miles north, and authorities there began setting up roadblocks including spikes. He also learned, as he entered the interstate, that the truck was stolen.

Wright, one of Hurricane’s four-man Police Department and the only officer on duty at the time, was the sole lawman in pursuit until the suspects reached the exit for Hamilton Fort, a tiny town about 5 miles south of Cedar City. There, the suspects saw another officer waiting to join the pursuit, but in an effort to dodge the officer, they crossed over the highway median and continued speeding north in the freeway’s southbound lanes.

Through Another Fence

They soon left the highway, crashing through a fence parallel to the interstate, and doubled back, speeding south on a frontage road in an attempt to elude authorities. The truck again burst through the fence, sped across the southbound lanes, over the median and into the northbound lanes, still proceeding south.

The driver tried to exit at Hamilton Fort, but when the truck “hit a bump or something,” the two motorcycles flew out and onto the highway. The truck then turned around and headed north once again on the highway. Again it went over the median, veered across the southbound lanes and crashed through the fence, into the Hamilton Fort subdivision.

At that point, the two suspects abandoned the truck and fled into the subdivision, made up of about 20 houses, Wright said. Cedar City police were called in with their canine unit and spotlights, and they surrounded the subdivision. The police dog sniffed out the first suspect, a 17-year-old juvenile from Los Angeles, about 2 hours after the chase began, Wright said.

The second suspect, 18-year-old George William Carter II of Laguna Hills, surrendered immediately afterward, he said.

Carter was arraigned Tuesday in 5th Circuit Court in St. George on three counts each of of second-degree vehicle theft and possession of stolen property, and one count each of felony failure to stop at the command of a police officer, reckless driving and destruction of public property, valued at $1,200. Carter was held in lieu of $20,000 bail and his preliminary hearing was set for May 24.

The juvenile, who was not identified, was arraigned on three counts each of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property. He was transported to the Cedar City detention center when authorities were unable to find relatives.

Wright said the pickup was reported stolen from El Toro on Sunday. The motorcycles were a 1987 Yamaha reported stolen Monday in Laguna Hills and a 1989 Kawasaki, taken Saturday from the same area, he said.