Convicted vehicle thief pleads not guilty in another theft case
Published 10:59 am Monday, February 18, 2013
A Sacramento man guilty of stealing a truck in Rochester who was arrested after he ran out of gas pleaded not guilty in another vehicle theft case.
Duangchan Keobounhmee, 31, pleaded not guilty to vehicle theft, theft and fleeing an officer in a vehicle, all felonies.
An Austin Police officer spotted Keobounhmee driving a reported stolen vehicle and called for backup. However, when officers initiated a traffic stop in Austin, Keobounhmee wouldn’t get out of his vehicle, according to the Mower County court complaint. Keobounhmee went south on 180th Street at 75 mph, turned onto County Road 4 and went into Freeborn County at 100 mph before turning around and heading back toward Austin.
In all, six Austin police officers and three Mower County Sheriff’s deputies assisted in the chase.
An officer put a spike strip near the county line, which Keobounhmee hit with his driver’s side tires. Keoubounhmee continued at 55 mph, the complaint adds, avoided another set of spike strips and eventually stopped at Fourth Avenue and 13th Street NW. He refused to get out of the vehicle, so officers forced him from it and had to shock him with a Taser to put handcuffs on him. At the jail, he refused to give his name.
Keobounhmee was convicted of felony vehicle theft and sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years’ supervised probation and 40 hours of community service in the first case.
He has a May 24 pretrial set for the current case.