Gepp, Arkansas man leads officers on high-speed chase in Bakersfield

Dustin Helton, 36, of Gepp, Arkansas, is being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $10,000 cash-only bond in connection with a March 23 high-speed chase in Bakersfield. He is charged with resisting arrest by fleeing - creating a substantial risk of serious injury/death to any person and damage to jail property.

According to the probable cause statement prepared by Ozark County Deputy Josh Sherman, the officer attempted to stop a gray Oldsmobile vehicle driving south on Highway 101 for failing to have the vehicle’s license plate illuminated. The vehicle had out-of-state plates, the report says. 

In response to the officer’s lights and sirens, the driver, later identified as Helton, sped up. Sherman radioed the dispatch office and said he would be in pursuit of the vehicle. The officer clocked the vehicle driving 88 mph in a 55 mph zone, the report says. He spotted two men in the vehicle, which crossed the center line multiple times as the chase led toward the Bakersfield city limits. 

“As we neared the tire shop on State Highway 101 (north of Bakersfield), I was attempting to box the vehicle in as a civilian car slowed in an attempt to assist with the blocking in of the suspect vehicle,” Sherman said in his report. 

“At that time, the driver was lit up well enough for me to identify...as the driver looked directly at my vehicle in my direction before turning aggressively into my position and attempting to strike my vehicle with his vehicle.” Due to civilian safety, Sherman said he reduced his speed while Helton struck the patrol car, and then the officer allowed the suspect to drive south on Highway 101 into Bakersfield. 

Fellow OCSD Deputy Gannon Moss positioned his vehicle south of where the collision with Sherman’ vehicle occurred. Sherman contacted the dispatch office and asked a dispatcher to request assistance from the Arkansas adjoining counties at that time. OCSD Lt. Matt Rhoades went to the residence where the vehicle originally left from, which was also located on Highway 101. The people who were there, who were on probation or parole in their own cases, told the officer that the two men who were in the vehicle had come back to the residence and ran into the woods. The Oldsmobile was parked a short distance from a fence line behind the residence, the report says. Sherman confirmed to Rhoades that it was the vehicle involved in the incident. 

The officers, along with OCSD K9 officer Karo, began to search the wooded area near the residence. A man in a blue hooded sweatshirt appeared walking from the direction of the Oldsmobile. Then he began to run. Rhoades and Moss quickly caught up and placed him in handcuffs. 

“He initially failed to comply with commands to stop and present his hands before turning to flee arrest (again). He identified himself as Dustin Helton. During a search of his person for weapons, a vehicle key to the Oldsmobile was located in his pocket. He matched the description of the driver and was in possession of the vehicle’s key, which provided them with probable cause for being the suspected driver in the incident,” the report says. The passenger was found and identified as David Blake. While in jail, Helton reportedly took apart a jail phone, which led to the additional felony charge of damage to jail property.