Photo: Charles Johnathon Youngberg
Authorities have captured a suspect who attempted to avoid arrest by jumping off the bank of the White River in his truck.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the incident began last Thursday when Stone County Dispatch received a call advising a man, later identified as 39-year-old Charles Johnathon Youngberg, was chasing the occupants of a vehicle and pointing a gun. While en route, law enforcement learned Youngberg had allegedly tossed the weapon from his pickup truck.
Youngberg was reportedly chasing a vehicle occupied by his estranged wife as a passenger, with a female companion driving. Their combined four minor children were also on board.
The caller to dispatch was the mother of the driver who reported having seen Youngberg following erratically after the females as they passed her home. She told law enforcement knowing her daughter did not have minutes on her cellphone, she and her husband got into their vehicle and followed the others.
Documentation of the incident was partially captured on the mother’s cellphone. Video from the cellphone allegedly shows Youngberg passing the victims on a double yellow line part of the roadway while in a curve. At one point, Youngberg’s estranged wife can be heard saying, “He threw the gun.”
The vehicle occupied by the women and children pulled into a driveway near the area where the weapon was tossed. They were joined by the female companion’s parents.
Cellphone video shows Youngberg’s pickup driving and stopping on State Highway 14, with vehicles having to negotiate around his truck. He can be heard in a yelling exchange with his estranged wife.
Youngberg then drives away and is encountered by sheriff’s deputies and an investigator from the department who attempt a traffic stop.
Youngberg reportedly turned off the highway and a pursuit begins. Stone County authorities were joined in the chase by officers from Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Game and Fish and the Izard County Sheriff’s Office, with speeds reaching over 95 miles per hour on hard surface roads.
Youngberg reportedly used many back roads in his effort to elude authorities, including damaging gates at a residence along State Highway 58 and driving through a yard along Ridge Road.
The pursuit ended with Lt. Dammon McGilton of the Stone County Sheriff’s Office boxing in Youngberg’s vehicle at the White River boat ramp on the Izard County side at Guion.
The suspect accelerated his truck, jumped his vehicle off the bank into the river and appeared to start to swim to the opposite shore. He was taken into custody by McGilton who waded into the river to make the apprehension. The truck traveled downstream a short distance and sank 20 feet east of the bridge.
A salvage team with a diver recovered the vehicle later than evening from a depth of 16 feet.
Youngberg is facing 14 charges in connection with the incident, including felonies of possession of firearms by certain persons, meaning he is a convicted felon, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a minor, fleeing and tampering with physical evidence.
His bond has been set at $200,000.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady®NSI