A woman who attempted to steal a vehicle, rammed another occupied vehicle and fled from deputies prompting a manhunt and a brief lockdown at National Park College in Hot Springs last year pleaded guilty to felony charges Tuesday.
Sidney Sharon Dodd, 26, who has remained in custody since her arrest Nov. 26, 2018, pleaded guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to breaking or entering and aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years in prison on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay $1,800 in restitution from a civil judgment and $170 in court costs.
According to the probable cause affidavit for Dodd's arrest, on Nov. 26, around 1 p.m. in the 100 block of Centennial Drive, located off the 800 block of Mid-America Boulevard, a witness said he saw a silver GMC Envoy pull up next to a silver Toyota Tacoma that belonged to one of his employees.
He then saw a white male exit the Envoy and get into the Tacoma, so he started walking down toward the vehicles as another of his employees drove a company vehicle down toward the area to check it out. The witness said as he got to the area a white female passenger in the Envoy jumped into the driver's seat as the white male jumped back in the Envoy.
The witness said he approached the window of the Envoy to confront the pair and the male suspect pointed a handgun at him and told the female to go. The second witness maneuvered his vehicle to try to block the suspects in, but the female suspect put the Envoy in reverse and backed into his vehicle twice, causing damage.
The suspects then drove away, with the witnesses following, until they got to a residence in the 900 block of Blacksnake Road where they jumped out and fled on foot into the woods nearby.
Sheriff's Cpl. Felix Hunter and Deputy Richard Huffman were able to locate the female suspect, identified as Dodd, in the woods off the 800 block of Mountain Pine Road. Dodd initially refused to give her name, but she was identified as the driver.
Once at the jail, Dodd reportedly gave her name and other information and was formally charged.
The owner of the Tacoma reported there was nothing missing from his vehicle, but items had been moved around.
Additional patrol units, investigators and the GCSD K-9 unit responded along with Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas State Park Service to search for the male suspect, but he was not located that day.
At one point, the National Park College campus was placed on a lockdown as a precaution, the college said on its Facebook page. The lockdown was lifted around 3 p.m.
Dodd had previously pleaded guilty on Nov. 7, 2018, in Clark County Circuit Court to felony counts of possession of meth with purpose to deliver and theft by receiving of a firearm and was sentenced to six years' probation. The charges stemmed from her arrest following a traffic stop on Feb. 28, 2018, in Caddo Valley.