Troopers arrest couple in high-speed chase

A 24-year-old driver of a Ford Mustang who eluded the Nevada Highway Patrol Saturday night on a 52-mile chase was transferred from Fallon to Mineral County to face numerous charges.

Mineral County District Attorney Sean Rowe said Monday that Tyler Leggett of San Diego was charged by the NHP for speeding, felony eluding an officer, failure to maintain a control device (double yellow line) and resisting arrest. Rowe said he waiting for reports from the Walker River Tribal Police Department, but he said Leggett may also be charged with felony eluding law enforcement, three counts of aggressive driving and reckless driving.

Sgt. Dave Cox, supervisor of the Nevada Highway Patrol’s Fallon District office, said the Fallon Police Department apprehended Leggett about nine blocks from the area where police and sheriff deputies conducted a house-to-house search on Colorado and Noel lanes and Dani Street. Capt. Vern Ulrich of the FPD said officers nabbed Leggett on Taylor Street and Williams Avenue on Sunday morning. Ulrich said law enforcement officers searched all night for Leggett and had received photos of him from Oregon.

Cox said the NHP began pursuing a Ford Mustang 18 miles north of Hawthorne shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday after it passed another vehicle in a double-yellow stretch of U.S. Highway 95. An NHP trooper attempted to stop the Mustang, but Leggett sped off, heading toward Churchill County. Cox said the NHP trooper radioed ahead.

According to additional police reports, the Walker River police joined the chase and tried unsuccessfully to stop the vehicle with spike strips. The driver continued to lead officers on a chase with speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

As the car traveled toward Fallon, Cox said both the Fallon Police and Churchill County Sheriff’s Office laid down spike strips south of the city limits, which punctured all four tires. Ulrich said the vehicle traveled through Fallon at speeds of 60-70 mph and finally stopped at Colorado lane and Taylor Street.

Cox said Leggett and his female passenger, Ashley Robinson, 30, also of San Diego, left the vehicle on foot, but the NHP soon arrested her. After her capture, Robinson gave the name of the driver to troopers.

The CCSO and the NHP immediately conducted their search of the neighborhood. Ulrich said no one was injured in the pursuit, and there were no accidents within the city.

Rowe said he was pleased with the collaboration among the many agencies that were involved in the chase.

Cox said Leggett was transported to Mineral County, where the initial pursuit occurred, but the CCSO said Robinson was also transported to Mineral County to face charges of obstructing law enforcement and possession of medication without a physician’s prescription. She posted bail Monday afternoon and returned to Fallon to pick up the Mustang, which had been towed to a storage yard and the tires fixed.

This is the third high-speed chase to occur in both Mineral and Churchill counties since June 2011.

On June 3, 2011, two people died as a result of a chase that began in Mineral County and ended with a gun battle in a Fallon residential area.

Before gunfire was exchanged on South Taylor Street (U.S. Highway 95), a head-on crash between two compact vehicles occurred near the intersection of U.S. Highway 50, killing a 75-year-old Missouri man.

In late August of the same year, a man led law enforcement officers on a two-hour-long high-speed chase through Mineral, Churchill and Lyon counties.

Churchill and Lyon county deputies, Fallon police and the NHP chased Mark Trindidad Cuellar of Las Vegas for nearly two hours. He was captured with the assistance from five different agencies including the Washoe County K-9 unit and the RAVEN helicopter.