A Gassville man who led officers from two agencies on a single high-speed chase on the same day was declared a fugitive Monday when he failed to show for a session of Baxter County Circuit Court.
Fifty-seven-year-old John Leroy Lewis is no stranger to hitting the gas instead of the brakes when he sees blue lights behind him.
He has been pursued while driving various conveyances, including a motorcycle, SUV and pickup trucks. It is not unusual for him to continue some chases on foot after his vehicle becomes disabled, or if he finds himself with no options to continue running from the police in a vehicle.
His current charges include fleeing in a vehicle with substantial danger of causing death or serious injury, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, reckless driving and 11 traffic offenses.
The chase began April 20 when a Mountain Home police officer reported seeing a Dodge Durango not using turn signals. The officer then reported that the driver was hiding his face behind his arm.
The vehicle then ran a stop sign and the officer turned on his emergency lights to signal the driver to pull over.
But the driver, later identified as Lewis, did not stop and began traveling at a high rate of speed. During the chase, Lewis was reported to have forced multiple vehicles to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
Lewis got onto State Highway 5 North and the pursuit by the Mountain Home officer was terminated in the vicinity of Butler Furniture Company because of the weather and heavy volume of traffic.
After being informed MHPD had terminated the pursuit in the city, a Baxter County Sheriff’s Deputy saw the suspect vehicle pull into a driveway and go around to the rear of a vacant house located in an area along County Road 13.
The deputy drove behind Lewis’ vehicle and activated his emergency lights. Lewis accelerated, drove across the property, into a ditch and onto County Road 13.
Because of the damage sustained when Lewis drove the Durango through the ditch, it was continuously slowing down. At one point, it was reported the chase had slowed to an eight-mile-an-hour crawl.
While the speed of the chase had been reduced, Lewis was reported to have continued putting other motorists in danger by driving his vehicle down the middle of the road causing oncoming traffic to exit the roadway to avoid a collision.
An Arkansas State Police trooper was eventually able to get in front of Lewis’ vehicle and stop it.
Lewis was taken into custody and officers searched the Durango. They found seven Alprazolam pills, a plastic bag containing a white power residue field-testing positive for methamphetamine and a set of digital scales.
The first criminal case opened on Lewis goes back to 1998.
In late 2020, Lewis rammed his motorcycle into a Baxter County Sheriff’s patrol car in an effort to avoid being arrested. He was reported to have suffered a broken leg and arm from the crash.
He had syringes in his pocket, one of which Lewis said was loaded with methamphetamine.
In December 2019, a Mountain Home police officer got behind Lewis who was driving a black Ford Pickup.
The officer reported the vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed and running multiple stop signs until pulling into the Ozark Shopping Center parking lot.
Lewis jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward what was then the Mountain Home Motel. He was arrested soon after.
Many of Lewis’ arrests began as vehicle chases and ended up with drugs and drug paraphernalia being found.
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