Photos: Matthew Braden and Lakota Tripp
Two men in their 20s who stole two vehicles to make a trip to Arkansas and ended up crashing one of them in the parking lot of the Fraternal Order of Eagles’ aerie at Midway were in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
At the time of the crash, 22-year-old Lakota Tripp and 20-year-old Matthew Braden, who both listed addresses in Wichita, Kansas, were being chased by a Baxter County deputy sheriff responding to a stolen wallet report.
Both men entered pleas of not guilty to the charges stemming from the incident. They are inmates in the Baxter County Detention Center, with bond set at $25,000 for each man.
The call reporting the stolen wallet came from a woman at the Bull Shoals-White River roadside park who said two males driving a black SUV got into her vehicle and took her property.
The deputy responding to the theft spotted the vehicle described by the victim on State Highway 178. He turned around and attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle driven by Braden rapidly accelerated. According to the probable cause affidavit, the deputy reported reaching speeds of 90-100 miles per hour during the chase.
When Braden veered into the gravel parking lot of the FOE aerie, he lost control of the vehicle, and it overturned coming to rest on its wheels.
According to a press release from Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, even after the accident, Braden attempted to continue his effort to elude arrest. The engine of the vehicle the two men were in was reported revving and the tires spinning but it went nowhere and Tripp and Braden were both taken into custody.
According to court records, Braden said the pair had stolen a truck in Wichita, Kansas, belonging to a relative of his, and drove it to Oklahoma where they ran out of gas. They were then allowed by a Ponca, Oklahoma, car lot employee to take an SUV for a test drive. The test drive eventually ended in the FOE’s parking lot at Midway.
Braden is alleged to have told investigators he was coming to Arkansas because someone in the state had “ruined his life,” and he intended to physically attack the person. He apparently has ties to Baxter County.
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