By Lea Barrios
WOODLAND – A Bay Area man is charged with felony evading a peace officer, with reckless driving and hit and run with injury, after fleeing authorities and being chased.
The defendant, Jarrell Jenkins, allegedly sped away from a police officer the night of Oct. 17, 2019, near County Roads 21A and 85B. During the preliminary hearing, Officer Kenneth Pierce testified that he followed the defendant, in a silver Buick, with the intent to pull him over for failing to stop at a stop sign in a three-way intersection.
Officer Pierce said the defendant pulled over into a mobile home park and slowed down, but drove through the park and exited at a high rate of speed. He followed the defendant and checked his speedometer, which calculated the defendant was going over 100 mph. The officer continued in pursuit of the defendant, and at that point he couldn’t see him or how many people were in the vehicle 
because the windows were tinted heavily.
He said the vehicle “fishtailed” when it was exiting a roadway and came to a stop. He saw inside the car that all of the airbags had deployed and the defendant exited the vehicle from the driver’s side. The officer said he held up his service weapon and yelled at the defendant to stop but the defendant adjusted his hoodie and ran away.
He saw a man in the passenger seat and yelled at the man to put his hands up—but the man yelled out that his shoulder was broken so he couldn’t, and he yelled in pain. The charge for infliction of great bodily injury was dropped, as the court ruled that a dislocated shoulder, although painful, does not qualify as great bodily injury in the eyes of the law.
The passenger said he believed the defendant was an Uber driver and implored him to stop during the chase because he feared they would die. He was on his way to Cache Creek Casino Resort to meet with a relative.
Officer Pierce later searched the car and found probation paperwork in the back of the vehicle.
Deputy Sheriff Mark Saunders also testified at the hearing, and he found the defendant walking westbound on Highway 16 after hearing about the incident. The defendant was walking through a rural area and a cornfield when he was found.
The deputy arrested the defendant and took him to the hospital. Deputy Saunders said that the defendant vomited in his presence and told the deputy that it was because his stomach hurt and he hit his head on the windshield when the car crashed.
The defendant will be held to answer for the counts of hit and run and evading a peace officer.
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