BRISTOL, Tenn. – Jeffrey Allen Phelps didn’t want to go back to jail.
At least, that’s what police report the 50-year-old fugitive from Florida said after a 20-minute, high-speed chase on Interstate 81 and through Bristol streets on both sides of the state line Monday.
The name of his female passenger – who was injured during her arrest – remained a mystery hours after the chase, which began just before noon.
“They have not been able to get any information from her,” Bristol, Va., Police Lt. Vick Jordan said by telephone Monday evening.
The chase began in the Exit 7 area of Bristol, Va., at the Airport Road Marathon gas station, where police answered a call about a man and woman panhandling in the parking lot.
A burgundy car without license plates sped away, police report, and soon turned onto southbound Interstate 81, drove off I-81, and then raced for 16 miles through neighborhood streets back onto the interstate, then through more neighborhood streets, and over curbs.
The Malibu struck a brick entrance wall of Victory Baptist Church on Island Road in Bristol, Va., police report. It later jumped a curb on Long Crescent Drive, before turning onto Commonwealth Avenue and continuing along the road’s switch onto the Volunteer Parkway across the Tennessee line.
By 12:15, the chase was over. Phelps sat handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser parked at the intersection of Shelby Lane and Volunteer Parkway in Bristol, Tenn.The burgundy 2007 Chevy Malibu, which police report as stolen from Florida, sputtered and quit because of a busted radiator, damaged when the vehicle smacked into a curb on the Virginia side of the city.
Officers found a Tennessee plate in the trunk and were overheard talking about a North Carolina plate found on the floorboards.
The female passenger, her face bloody and shirt ripped, sat on the asphalt slumped against the vehicle, moaning about pain in her arms.
A paramedic held gauze to her nose, cut by her glasses when she hit the pavement in surrender, Bristol, Tenn., Police Capt. Charlie Thomas said at the scene.
Phelps, while handcuffed, refused to give his real name, police said.
“He’s given two or three different names,” Thomas said.
Phelps was charged with felony eluding, a felony and a misdemeanor count of possession of stolen property, reckless driving, hit and run with property damage, and driving on a suspended license. He is wanted in Florida on a probation violation, police report. The original charge was not available Monday.
“The man said he didn’t want to go back to jail,” Lt. Jordan said. “That’s why he kept driving.”
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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