A man who led Hot Springs police on a high-speed pursuit through multiple areas of the city in January before being arrested at an area motel pleaded guilty Monday in Garland County Circuit Court.
Blake Daniel Johnson, 28, pleaded guilty to a felony count of fleeing and was sentenced to six years in prison, with the entire sentence suspended, fined $1,000 and ordered to pay $190 in court costs.
A woman, Kathren Lynn Anderson, 27, of Hot Springs, who was a passenger in the car with him and fled on foot into the motel, was initially also charged with felony fleeing but pleaded no contest on Feb. 25 to misdemeanor fleeing and was sentenced to 39 days in jail with credit for time served, so she was released.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Jan. 17, shortly before 10:30 p.m., police Cpl. Zac Rostan spotted a blue Mercury Grand Marquis being driven eastbound on Central approaching Grand Avenue and discovered the license plate returned to a Dodge Caravan, so he attempted a traffic stop at Grand and Jefferson.
The car continued on and turned into the parking lot of Cash Savers, 800 Malvern, where it accelerated rapidly through the lot and ran the red light at Grand and Malvern at which point the back door flew open and a laundry basket full of clothes and other items fell out.
The car sped west on Grand, veering through the parking lot at Crazy Dan's, 105 E. Grand, and then continued eastbound in the westbound lane of Grand, ran the red light at Grand and Malvern again, then turned onto Jefferson and continued to Pleasant, then Grove, then Shiloh, traveling in excess of 90 mph in a 35 mph residential zone.
The vehicle turned south onto Spring Street, making a loop through multiple side streets, running at least two stop signs, before returning north on Spring. At one point, a person on the side of the road on Spring threw a long white board at the passing vehicle, which shattered on the windshield. The vehicle continued across Grand to Reserve and ran the red light at Reserve and Central.
The vehicle continued to Court Street, then to Exchange, Prospect, Crown, Chapel and back to Central, running multiple stop signs along the way, and then ran the red light at Central and Market and turned east on Market to Broadway and Broadway Terrace to Orange. It finally traveled down a small dirt trail behind BPL Plasma, 630 Malvern, which the affidavit notes is a "heavily used walking path next to the Greenway."
Rostan followed the vehicle down the trail knowing there was a tree in the path he believed would make it impassable for the vehicle. The Marquis hit a concrete electrical box, knocking the lid off, and then wedged itself between a fence and the tree and got past it to Jefferson and back to Grand where Rostan lost sight of it on Valley Street.
Officer Tyler Cox was in the area of East Grand and Jefferson and saw the Marquis exit the dirt trail onto Jefferson and cross to Valley and began pursuing it with his lights and siren. The vehicle turned onto East Maurice Street back to Malvern to Crescent Street and he noted it was traveling at such a high rate of speed when it crossed Malvern it became airborne for roughly 30 feet through the intersection.
Cox lost sight of it on Crescent but the vehicle was located backed into a parking spot at the Economy Inn and a witness stated he recognized the driver as Johnson and that he went into Room 217 of the motel.
Motel employees allowed police to view surveillance video from the parking lot which showed Johnson get out of the driver's side and Anderson get out of the passenger side and go to Room 217 using different stairwells. It was determined the room was registered to Anderson.
Contact was made with the occupants of the room, including Johnson, Anderson and another male, and Johnson and Anderson were taken into custody. Anderson reportedly stated Johnson was driving and he had fled because he didn't have a driver's license.