A wild chase in which a number of lawmen pursued a Flippin teenager until he wrecked the stolen car he was driving came to its ultimate end last week during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court.
Nineteen-year-old Uriah Plez Jones was sentenced to four years in prison on a number of charges related to the chase that began on U.S. Highway 62/412 east of Mountain Home in the early morning hours of April 11.
The chase went through Mountain Home, Gassville and Cotter and came to an end when Jones lost control of the vehicle at the intersection of U.S. Highway 62/412 and State Highway 178 near Flippin, hit a highway sign and crashed into a ditch.
According to the probable cause affidavits setting out details of the chase, the incident began when a Baxter County deputy sheriff spotted a vehicle matching the description of one reported stolen in Marion County. The deputy attempted to get the vehicle to pull over, but Jones stopped only long enough to allow a female passenger to jump from the car with her hands up.
Jones then accelerated to a high rate of speed toward Mountain Home. He turned onto the Sheid-Hopper Bypass. Another deputy sheriff put out a “spike strip” near the intersection of Pebble Creek Road and Highway 62/412. He was successful in spiking the right front passenger side tire, but Jones kept going. The fleeing car ran over another spike strip in Gassville, deflating the front tire on the driver’s side.
Even through he was running on only the two front rims of the car, Jones continued westbound through Cotter and into Marion County and was reported able to manage speeds of 85 mile per hour, according to a press release issued by Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery.
During the chase, Jones crashed into the patrol cars driven by Baxter County deputies — some were hit several times.
After he crashed the car he was driving, Jones refused to unlock the vehicle when officers approached, and they had to break out the driver’s side window before the Flippin teen could be taken out of the vehicle. In circuit court last week, Jones admitted he had been under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the incident.
In addition to charges in Baxter County, Jones had three open criminal cases in Marion County. Charges in those cases included stealing the car he drove during the chase. The sentence handed down last week also covers his cases in Marion County.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI