CEDAR CITY, Utah, Nov. 9, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — Two Cedar City residents are in custody after troopers say they led officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle.
At about 9:40 p.m. Wednesday, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper tried to pull over a Dodge Stratus with West Virginia license plates, which was traveling north on Interstate 15, near mile marker 65. The sedan had expired registration.
The Stratus slowed down and pulled over.
“The vehicle started to pull to the right and appeared to be coming to a stop,” said Adam Gibbs, Utah Highway Patrol, in a probable cause statement. “The vehicle then reentered the traffic lane and took off at a high rate of speed. I pursued the vehicle as it traveled northbound, at a high rate of speed, with my emergency lights and siren activated.”
The Parawon and Enoch police departments and the Iron County Sheriff’s Office joined in the chase. The vehicle traveled about three miles, then turned around in the median and headed south at more than 100 mph, and in a manner that showed “disregard for public safety,” Gibbs said.
Spike strips were laid, and and flatted three of the car’s tires. The car pulled over, and the driver and his female passenger were taken into custody.
“While we were placing the driver into custody, he made an excited utterance stating that the passenger did not know the vehicle was stolen,” Gibbs said. After the suspect was read his Miranda Rights, “He admitted that the had stolen the vehicle approximately 40 minutes before the stop in an area by the hospital in Cedar City, Utah.”
Gibbs recognized the driver as Brandon Birdsell from a previous encounter, he said in the probable cause statement, and found three active warrants.
Birdsell and passenger Vanissa Evany Cleaveland, both 20, were booked into the Iron County Jail.
Birdsell was booked on suspicion of several misdemeanors, including reckless driving, and on receiving or transfer of stolen vehicle, a second-degree felony; and failure to stop or respond to a command of police, a third-degree felony.
Cleaveland was booked on suspicion of a parole violation.
