PAWNEE COUNTY, Nebraska, Sept. 5, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Police responding to a car wreck in Nebraska found, instead of a dead man, a fugitive wanted out of Cache County, Utah.
The Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office responded to the emergency call at Ironhorse Lake Sunday afternoon, originally dispatched as a double fatality, according to the sheriff’s press release. “When law enforcement arrived, two men were located lying in the middle of the road in front of a wrecked vehicle.”
Neither was dead.
Pawnee emergency medical transported both men to a hospital “for excessive alcohol and drug consumption,” according to the sheriff’s post on Facebook. “One of the men was identified as Ronald Nalepa, a wanted felon out of Utah.”
Nalepa had pleaded guilty to a stabbing in Logan, Utah, in 2020, according to the sheriff, as well as multiple other stabbings and assaults “from Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah. Nalepa became combative with EMS and hospital staff during and after his initial transport.”
Eventually cleared medically, the sheriff’s office said Nalepa was transported to jail in Omaha to await extradition to Utah on an outstanding warrant, apparently for parole violations in the 2020 case.
“Nalepa told law enforcement that he ‘really likes the Pawnee County area, and plans to move here once his prison term is up in Utah.’ He settled in the area to stay with friends while hiding from law enforcement.”
