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PARKERSBURG -- A Parkersburg man was arrested last week for stealing a car and leading police on a three-county chase.
There was indication of other crimes and an escape attempt after he was in custody.
Daniel Wayne Mackey, 37, was arraigned Thursday in Wood County Magistrate Court on charges of grand larceny, fleeing from an officer with reckless indifference and petit larceny.
On May 12, law enforcement was dispatched to Frenchies on Seventh Street in reference to an incident in the parking lot. A woman reported her wallet had been taken from her truck, which included some cash, identification and debit cards, wrote Patrolman J.L. Fox in a criminal complaint.
The business provided video footage the next day and officers observed Mackey approach the truck, open the passenger door and grab what appears to be a wallet. The footage showed Mackey close the door, put the wallet into the front of his pants and walks away, wrote Fox.
On Tuesday, May 17, a 2010 Subaru Legacy was reported stolen from St. Joseph's Recovery Center at 1824 Murdoch Ave. It was valued at $6,000.
Mackey was reported at the location and left just before the vehicle was found to be gone, according to a separate criminal complaint written by Sgt. JR Snyder of the Parkersburg Police Department.
On Wednesday, May 18, Snyder observed Mackey in the driver's seat of the stolen vehicle in the area of 16th Street and St. Marys Avenue, made contact and ordered Mackey to exit the vehicle.
Mackey looked at Snyder and accelerated the vehicle while there were other people inside. Snyder began a pursuit with his emergency lights and sirens on. Mackey turned left (eastbound) on 15th Street from an unnamed alley and stopped near 15th Street and Lynn Street to allow the occupants out of the car, Snyder wrote.
Mackey then accelerated rapidly traveling 55 mph in a 25 mph zone.
"The fleeing suspect vehicle ran the stop sign at 15th Street and Latrobe Street at a very high rate of speed, without slowing down and (the officer) did not observe the brake lights illuminate," Snyder wrote.
There was another vehicle traveling travelling southbound on Latrobe Street and Mackey came within a few feet of striking the other motorist, according to the criminal complaint.
Mackey continued fleeing and Snyder lost sight of the vehicle in the area of 15th and Oak streets.
Mackey fled and was able to avoid apprehension and was later caught in Harrison County at the conclusion of a separate pursuit, eastbound on U.S. 50.
In published reports from other media outlets, the pursuit, which reached speeds of 120 mph, ended with spike strips deployed at the Pike Street exit on U.S. 50 in Clarksburg. The reports said at one point, Mackey crossed the median and headed east in the westbound lanes.
It was reported Mackey also tried to run down a Clarksburg patrol officer towards the end of the pursuit as the officer was trying to deploy spike strips.
Mackey was still operating the same stolen vehicle at the end of the second pursuit, Snyder wrote.
In reviewing video footage of the area around where the car was stolen, Snyder saw a person wearing a shirt with a design on it walking towards where the car was parked.
When Mackey was apprehended in Harrison County he was wearing a t-shirt that had the same type of design as the suspect from the original theft, Snyder wrote.
On Friday after being in custody, Mackey tried to escape while walking back from court to the Holding Center by running for an emergency exit. Officers were able to secure Mackey before he left the building and was escorted to the Holding Center where he tried to escape again, wrote Deputy T.L. Fridenstine in a separate criminal complaint.
An additional charge of attempted escape was also added.
Mackey is being held on $280,000 bond at the North Central Regional Jail for the charges from Wood County.
He is also being held at the jail on $50,000 bond for charges of attempted first and second degree murder as well as fleeing with reckless indifference out of Harrison County, according to published reports from other media outlets.
He is also being held on $25,000 bond for charges out of Doddridge County and being held on no bond for charges out of Monongalia County. The details of those charges were not readily available at press time.