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VERNAL — A Uintah County man with a history of fleeing from police has been arrested and accused of going over 150 mph to get away from a Utah Highway Patrol trooper.
Jason Alexander Jones, 26, was booked into the Uintah County Jail on Thursday for investigation of failing to stop at the command of police, obstruction of justice, exhibition driving on the freeway and reckless driving.
On April 19, a UHP trooper on U.S. 40 spotted a white Kia Stinger with tinted windows that appeared to be illegal, according to a police booking affidavit. The vehicle was traveling under the speed limit.
But when the trooper got behind the Stinger and attempted to pull it over, "I observed the vehicle quickly and rapidly create separation ahead of me. I turned my front radar (pointed in the) same direction and observed the speed of 152 mph in a 65 mph zone. My vehicle speeds were approximately 142 mph and he was still creating distance," the trooper wrote in the affidavit.
The trooper said he had been traveling at that speed for about three miles before calling off the pursuit.
For the next several hours, the trooper spoke with Uintah County sheriff's deputies who said they also had had a white Stinger flee from them a couple of times over the past few weeks. They also noted that Jones was the suspect in another evading case out of Uintah County, the affidavit states.
The trooper learned that Jones works at a local Walmart and went to the store where he spotted the vehicle that he believed fled from him. When questioned, Jones claimed he had been home all day on the April 19, the affidavit says.
As the trooper continued his investigation, he learned Jones had been at a cannabis store in Dinosaur, Colorado, about three miles from the Utah border on U.S. 40, about 20 minutes before speeding by the trooper on April 19, according to the affidavit. The trooper collected evidence from the store, including surveillance video, that allegedly shows Jones had been there.
The trooper went back to Walmart on Thursday and arrested Jones.
"Jason was convicted of fleeing in 2021. This would be the third time he has eluded officers in three years," the trooper noted.
According to charging documents filed in the 2021 case, Jones also reached a speed of 152 mph in that incident.
