JUAB COUNTY, Utah Jan. 18, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — What started as a traffic stop of a motorist nine miles over the speed limit turned into a fentanyl-fueled, 120 mph chase with cocaine flying out the window, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Events began just after 3 p.m. Tuesday when troopers couple miles outside of Mills tried to pullover a speeder clocked at 89 mph in an 80 mph zone northbound on Interstate 15 at mile marker 209. Instead, the driver fled, reaching speeds of 120 mph, according to arrest documents filed in Juab County’s 4th District Court.
After some 13 miles spike strips slowed the vehicle and troopers were able to block the female driver’s efforts to get off the freeway. “The two occupants were secured without incident.”
Inside the vehicle were found several fentanyl pills well as powder identified as cocaine, plus straws, pipes and other drug paraphernalia, according to charging documents for the driver, Donna Marie Vest, 32.
The arresting trooper wrote that just before the chase ended, “I observed something thrown from the vehicle and a puff of white dust.” Vest told jail staff at booking that she had taken fentanyl an hour earlier, the trooper said.
Along for the ride was passenger Michael Gerald Hunter, 41, who admitted to throwing the cocaine (reportedly a kilo) out the window but said the fentanyl was Vest’s, according to the charging documents.
Vest faces nine counts total: reckless driving, reckless endangerment, failure to respond at the command of police, three drug counts, driving on a suspended license, as well as traffic infractions for illegal lane change and failure to signal. Hunter faces three drug counts as well as obstruction of justice and failure to respond at the command of police.
