Jason Cockerham
A man who drove through the yard of a home narrowly missing a woman while trying to outrun law officers and was also accused of stealing a number of trailers throughout the county entered a guilty plea to charges against him and was sentenced to six years in prison during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court last Thursday.
The prison time in Baxter County will run concurrently with the 10 year sentence 43-year-old Jason Cockerham was given in Fulton County in late June, after admitting he had violated the terms and conditions of his probation. Cockerham was put on probation in Fulton County last year after pleading guilty to commercial burglary and theft of property.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Cockerham stole a fairly large number of trailers in Baxter County, taking many of them to property on State Highway 5 North in Midway where they were sold. Cockerham’s wife, 44-year-old Bobbie Cockerham, was said to have cooperated with investigators by providing information on many of the stolen trailers.
When Cockerham was initially interviewed about the thefts, he admitted he could not remember every place from which he stole a trailer.
The amount of restitution in the trailer theft case has yet to be determined.
Bobbie Cockerham is charged with participating in the theft of the trailers. She also picked up charges in May when she allegedly attempted to sneak tobacco to her husband in the county jail concealed in a Bible. She admitted to bringing the Bible into the jail, but would not acknowledge she knew contraband items were hidden in the book. She has reappearance dates in her cases on Oct. 3 and Nov. 7.
Bobbie Cockerham
At the time of the car chase in which Jason Cockerham was involved, he was living in Oakland. Baxter County deputy sheriffs responded to a report that agents from a bail bond company were attempting to take Cockerham into custody, and he was said to have been armed and fighting with the agents.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Cockerham was able to get away from the agents and flee in a vehicle.
A Baxter County deputy sheriff spotted the car driven by Cockerham and attempted to pull it over. The vehicle turned into a driveway on County Road 25 and almost hit a woman standing in the yard. Cockerham was reported to have driven through the yard before coming back onto the county road headed east.
The pursuing deputy reported Cockerham then turned onto County Road 793, pulled into the driveway of a residence, bailed out of his vehicle and fled on foot.
A perimeter was set up, and the canine tracking team from the state prison at Calico Rock was brought in. The sheriff’s office helicopter was also launched to aid in the search.
Residents living in the house where Cockerham abandoned his car were notified a hunt for him was underway in the vicinity. They took precautions, including locking their vehicle. They also locked themselves in their home, while officers searched for the fugitive.
The canine tracking team found Cockerham about 200 yards from where he had abandoned his vehicle, and he was taken into custody about 10:30 p.m.
Cockerham was reported not to have had a valid driver’s license since 2014.
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