A prisoner who escaped from a Van Buren courtroom Sept. 23 and stole a deputy's patrol car was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.
Necolle Brooke Speaks, 24, of Van Buren pleaded guilty Wednesday to several charges, including escape, which carried the 15-year prison sentence, according to a plea agreement filed in Crawford County Circuit Court.
Speaks also pleaded guilty to theft of property, fleeing, criminal mischief, terroristic threatening, failure to appear, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer. She received a 15-year suspended sentence on those charges.
Speaks crashed the car into a tree line along Interstate 40 near Alma after being forced from the road by Arkansas State Police Trooper Josh Elmore, according to a report from the Crawford County sheriff's office.
Bound in leg shackles and handcuffs, Speaks slipped out a side door in the Crawford County courtroom after the judge called for a recess, Sheriff Ron Brown said.
Brown said there was a lot of movement in the courtroom at that moment. One deputy had left to take a prisoner to the restroom, and the bailiff had stepped out of the courtroom to call for someone whose name was on the court docket.
Speaks found an unlocked patrol car in the parking lot with the keys in the console next to the seat, Brown said.
According to the report by Lt. Matthew McGrew of the sheriff's office, deputies were in pursuit when Speaks stopped at a red light at Arkansas 59 and the Interstate 40 on-ramp.
Deputy Carl Burcham jumped out of his car and ran up to the vehicle Speaks was driving. He grabbed her through the open window, attempting to pull her out of the car, wrote McGrew.
"As Deputy Burcham grabbed Speaks, Speaks sped away, causing Deputy Burcham to be thrown into the vehicle next to them," the report said. Brown said the other vehicle wasn't moving and Burcham wasn't injured.
Once on the interstate, Speaks swerved the patrol car, almost hitting Elmore's vehicle, which was parked on the shoulder with the emergency lights flashing, the report said. That's when Elmore joined the chase and forced Speaks from the interstate with a tactical ramming maneuver that causes a vehicle to spin out of control.
According to court filings, Speaks was in court Sept. 23 for a plea hearing on charges of terroristic threatening, possession of drug paraphernalia and unauthorized use of a vehicle. Speaks was formally charged May 3 and pleaded innocent the next day.
Speaks was listed as a habitual offender, which means she has four or more felony convictions.
Metro on 10/07/2016