Cam B
10-09-2007, 08:35 PM
http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-10-06-0005.html
GLADE SPRING, Va. – Lanky 18-year-old Timothy Donnelly slumped against the hood of a police cruiser Friday evening with a casual look of teenage disinterest.
Just moments before, he was read his Miranda rights by one of the dozen uniformed officers huddled around him.
He and his friend, Andrew Myers Brown, 18, were subsequently taken to jail on multiple felony charges.
Around 10 a.m. Friday, the two men from Ridgefield, Conn., whizzed through a speed trap on Interstate 81. When blue lights flashed in the rear view mirror, Brown, who was driving, floored the accelerator of his dad’s Mercedes Benz, sparking a massive, seven-hour police chase that spanned three Southwest Virginia counties.
Four law enforcement agencies participated in pursuit of the beige convertible, at times topping the 130 mph pace set by the driver.
By 5 p.m., the two teens stood handcuffed in the parking lot of the Joy Baptist Church off Exit 32, fielding questions as to why they ran in the first place.
"We found some drug paraphernalia," said David Hale, special agent for Virginia State Police, while he searched the car the men had abandoned earlier. "But it doesn’t seem worth all this."
Initially, the car was clocked in Wythe County near Exit 54 going south at more than 85 mph. Brown and Donnelly out-ran the trooper who tried to stop them, then disappeared for three hours, said Trooper F.D. Glick, a VSP spokesman.
Around 1 p.m., Trooper Ronald Collins in Smyth County responded to a tip and headed toward Chilhowie, where he spotted the car again traveling south on I-81.
At Exit 26, the car pulled off the highway and turned north on U.S. Highway 11E. Collins pursued it onto a service road behind Greenway Creek Golf Course at Exit 32.
They continued a mile or so down a winding gravel road, Collins said, then ripped through a cornfield and busted through a fence into a pasture that lay behind it. A fence at the far end of the field stopped the car, forcing the two men to flee on foot, Collins said.
For nearly four hours after, a helicopter and a plane search from above while police dogs assisted officers on foot.
Around 4:30, the exhausted officers prepared to quit for the night. Two minutes later, they were alerted the suspects had been apprehended.
Glick said officers found a significant amount of cash on the two. But no drugs, no weapons and nothing else illegal was found.
"We’ll continue to search the area for any contraband they may have discarded," he said.
As of Friday night, the men face serious charges that stem from trying to avoid a speeding ticket, Hale said.
GLADE SPRING, Va. – Lanky 18-year-old Timothy Donnelly slumped against the hood of a police cruiser Friday evening with a casual look of teenage disinterest.
Just moments before, he was read his Miranda rights by one of the dozen uniformed officers huddled around him.
He and his friend, Andrew Myers Brown, 18, were subsequently taken to jail on multiple felony charges.
Around 10 a.m. Friday, the two men from Ridgefield, Conn., whizzed through a speed trap on Interstate 81. When blue lights flashed in the rear view mirror, Brown, who was driving, floored the accelerator of his dad’s Mercedes Benz, sparking a massive, seven-hour police chase that spanned three Southwest Virginia counties.
Four law enforcement agencies participated in pursuit of the beige convertible, at times topping the 130 mph pace set by the driver.
By 5 p.m., the two teens stood handcuffed in the parking lot of the Joy Baptist Church off Exit 32, fielding questions as to why they ran in the first place.
"We found some drug paraphernalia," said David Hale, special agent for Virginia State Police, while he searched the car the men had abandoned earlier. "But it doesn’t seem worth all this."
Initially, the car was clocked in Wythe County near Exit 54 going south at more than 85 mph. Brown and Donnelly out-ran the trooper who tried to stop them, then disappeared for three hours, said Trooper F.D. Glick, a VSP spokesman.
Around 1 p.m., Trooper Ronald Collins in Smyth County responded to a tip and headed toward Chilhowie, where he spotted the car again traveling south on I-81.
At Exit 26, the car pulled off the highway and turned north on U.S. Highway 11E. Collins pursued it onto a service road behind Greenway Creek Golf Course at Exit 32.
They continued a mile or so down a winding gravel road, Collins said, then ripped through a cornfield and busted through a fence into a pasture that lay behind it. A fence at the far end of the field stopped the car, forcing the two men to flee on foot, Collins said.
For nearly four hours after, a helicopter and a plane search from above while police dogs assisted officers on foot.
Around 4:30, the exhausted officers prepared to quit for the night. Two minutes later, they were alerted the suspects had been apprehended.
Glick said officers found a significant amount of cash on the two. But no drugs, no weapons and nothing else illegal was found.
"We’ll continue to search the area for any contraband they may have discarded," he said.
As of Friday night, the men face serious charges that stem from trying to avoid a speeding ticket, Hale said.