CEDAR CITY — Police arrested a Kansas man on Saturday evening following a multi-agency pursuit that began with a high-speed vehicle chase on Interstate 15 and ended with the suspect being captured on foot in a residential neighborhood in Enoch.
Carl Edward Poston, 30, was booked into Iron County Jail shortly before midnight on suspicion of more than one dozen charges, including possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, reckless driving, failure to stop at command of police, driving on a suspended or revoked license and possession of drugs and paraphernalia.
According to the probable cause statement filed in support of Poston’s arrest, at 5:17 p.m. on May 27, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper observed a white SUV driving northbound on I-15 that had “significant” window tinting on its front windows, as well as tinting on taillights.
After trooper ran a license plate check on the vehicle, he learned that the car had been reported stolen out of Kansas.
“I attempted a traffic stop of the vehicle near mile marker 72 and a pursuit ensued,” the arresting trooper wrote. “After some time, the pursuit was terminated due to the reckless driving of the subject. However, a deputy deployed spike strips that deflated the tires and the subject drove off the interstate, through a fence, and came to rest near a business where the driver took off on foot.”
According to the affidavit, the driver took off his shirt and ran from the vehicle while carrying a backpack through multiple residential backyards in Enoch.
“After a short search the subject was located with the backpack in the front yard of a residence and taken into custody by other units,” the arresting trooper wrote.
According to UHP, the man was apprehended less than twenty minutes after the pursuit began, at approximately 5:36 p.m.
“When I arrived on scene the subject was seated in a patrol vehicle and the backpack was in a resident’s driveway, untouched since the subject had left it,” the trooper wrote, adding that he requested and received permission from the subject to search the backpack.
Inside the backpack were the following items, according to the affidavit:
- Two handguns, one .45 caliber and one .22 caliber, both with loaded magazines.
- A glass pipe with white residue and a small container with a white crystalline substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
- A wallet containing Poston’s own identification card and social security card.
- A social security card belonging to an unknown person.
Poston reportedly told officers that the backpack belonged to a friend and that he had placed some of his own items inside of it.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators reportedly found a small baggie of methamphetamine, a glass pipe with tinfoil, dispensary containers of marijuana and a small baggie of crushed-up pills in the SUV towed from the scene.
One 9 mm bullet and body armor were also located, according to the affidavit. Additionally, the window tint of the front driver’s side window was measured at 21% light transmittance, which is darker than what is legally allowed in both Utah and Kansas.
The arresting trooper requested in the charging documents that Poston be held without bail, noting a previous felony conviction and an extensive criminal history involving violent crime, drug possession and distribution of narcotics.
“The subject was involved in a high speed pursuit where he showed a wanton disregard for the safety of the innocent motoring public in his efforts to get away,” the trooper wrote in the affidavit, adding, “The subject has no ties to Utah and with both his actions and history, I believe that not only is he a flight risk, but that he is a danger to the public at large.”
Sunday morning, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Randy Riches provided additional details regarding the pursuit, confirming that the fleeing driver had reversed direction.
“He was being pursued northbound, then turned through the median near Parowan and went southbound,” Riches told Cedar City News, adding that the spikes were deployed between mile markers 65 and 64 on the southbound side of I-15. The vehicle reportedly ended up on or near the Old Highway 91 frontage road, in the area of Wagon Wheel Drive.
Responding to the incident were multiple Utah Highway Patrol troopers, Iron County Sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Cedar City and Enoch police departments.
This report is based on statements from court documents and law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.