Authorities today outlined what they think was a one-man, five-hour crime spree that ended with a dramatic capture at Garfield County Regional Airport.
Jason Allen Lewis, 28, was arrested after he was chased by cruisers in two parts of the county, including on the airport’s tarmac. He also was tracked twice on foot by police dogs.
Lewis was arrested after sheriff’s deputies spotted him driving a stolen Chevy Suburban on the airport’s tarmac about 1 a.m. Saturday,
“At that moment, the vehicle began to reverse at a high rate of speed and headed towards the airplane hangars,” the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department stated in a media release this afternoon.
“Deputies followed the suspect and attempted to detain him and the vehicle at gunpoint between two of the hangars. At which point, the suspect failed to comply with verbal commands and drove the vehicle around the deputies.”
Lewis drove the truck down a steep embankment, tore down about 50 feet of airport fencing and was tracked hiding nearby in the brush.
The sheriff’s department said evidence indicates Lewis was driving another stolen sport-utility vehicle erratically on Interstate 70 about 7 p.m. Friday.
Deputies called off a chase but soon found the SUV crashed into pipeline at a construction site off Garfield County Road 315. A police dog tracked the footprints leading away from the crash but lost the trail after about an hour.
About a mile and a half away, some residents along Garfield County Road 352 came home about 10 p.m. to discover their home had been broken into, and clothes and jewelry were missing.
Another tracking dog followed a trail for an hour, leading to the airport property where Lewis was eventually arrested.
Lewis was taken to a hospital for injuries from the two vehicle crashes before he was booked into the Garfield County Jail on $75,000 bond on numerous charges.
Court records show Lewis has been arrested several times on theft, trespassing, criminal mischief, arson and other charges in Delta and Mesa counties.
In 2006, he was sentenced to four years in state prison on an aggravated motor theft charge in Delta County. He was given credit 684 days of time served before he pleaded guilty and sentenced, records show.
Lewis has a court hearing on Monday in Grand Junction stemming from a June 26 arrest in which he is charged with felony criminal mischief, trespassing, assault and obstructing a police officer.
