A Nevada couple is in the Donley County Jail this week after leading deputies on a chase around Clarendon and into ranch country on Monday, June 22.
Sheriff Butch Blackburn said Ezekiel Derr and Kristalyn Noelle Vaughn were each facing three felony charges and were awaiting arraignment as the Enterprise went to press Tuesday.
The couple’s saga started Monday morning when they stopped at a fruit stand near Hedley “acting weird and asking for gas,” Blackburn said.
“Someone mentioned law enforcement, and they took off,” the sheriff said.
A Donley County deputy attempted to pull the couple over east of Clarendon on US 287, and that’s when the suspects gave chase. Going through convenience store parking lots and then driving at a high rate of speed down Ellerbe through residential neighborhoods and even going through a fence in the south part of town before deputies lost sight of them.
Blackburn said they were reported in Howardwick at one point, but that was a false sighting and not the right vehicle. The couple resurfaced near County Road X and County Road 13 where they stopped and asked for gas. The couple then sped off and ended up on the Oaks Creek Ranch and crashed through several gates before dropping their car off into a creek bed, the sheriff said.
Taking off on foot, deputies used a drone and a canine unit from Carson County to locate the suspects, who were apprehended shortly after noon by Carson County Chief Deputy J.C. Blackburn.
Sheriff Blackburn said Derr has a criminal history but Vaughn does not. The couple are both 38-year-old residents of Las Vegas, Nevada, and were driving a car stolen from Dallas the day before. The car’s tags had been altered and initially appeared to be registered in Houston.
Both suspects appeared to be high on fentanyl.
Blackburn said both suspects are charged with third degree felony Evading Arrest and state jail felonies Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle and Criminal Mischief.
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