Truck theft defendant gets SES, probation and ordered to complete Mountain Moving Ministry

Joseph D. Hale pleaded guilty to tampering with a motor vehicle pursuant to a plea agreement and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The execution of the sentence was suspended, and he was placed on supervised probation for a term of 5 years. Hale is also ordered to complete the Mountain Moving Ministries program in addition to other general sentencing conditions. As part of the agreement, additional charges of resisting arrest and two counts of property damage were dismissed. 

Online court records show that the victims in the case agree with the plea offer. “The court further finds that this case is proper for a plea, as the defendant was recently released from DOC and that the defendant has evidenced that he is no longer a danger to the community as this is a fairly old charge,” the record says. 

The probable cause statement filed in the case by former Ozark County Deputy Kyle Hannaford, says that at 8:11 p.m. Dec. 18, 2020, he and another deputy were dispatched to Bakersfield for a stolen silver 2018 Ford F-150. The truck’s owner, who called 911 to report the theft, told a dispatcher that they had a tracking device on the truck and would keep the OCSD informed of where the truck was. 

The two officers turned onto Highway 101, and near the intersection of Highway 160, they met a silver Ford matching the description of the stolen vehicle traveling north at a high rate of speed. The officers activated their lights and sirens and turned around to stop the vehicle. Because of the location of the officers and suspected stolen truck near the Ozark-Howell Counties line, the Ozark County dispatch office asked for help from Howell County officers.

“Once on Highway 160, speeds were reached in excess of 100 miles per hour, but the suspect vehicle was still pulling away from Deputy Schofield and me,” Hannaford wrote in the report. “Due to traffic conditions and the erratic driving of the suspect, I deactivated my emergency equipment and resumed normal driving speeds and continued in the direction of the suspect vehicle.”

The officers asked the dispatch office to contact the truck’s owner to see if there was an update on the truck’s location. A dispatcher relayed that the information that the truck was at Highway OO turning onto County Road 7320. The officers went to that location and onto YY Highway and followed it to the intersection of Highway 101.

“[I] immediately met the suspect vehicle, which was traveling south. I immediately turned around and caught up to the vehicle. I activated my emergency lights and attempted to make a traffic stop. The vehicle quickly accelerated, then turned left onto a dead-end county road. Shortly after turning onto the country road, the vehicle wrecked, striking an electric pole and rolling over, coming to rest with its wheels up. The electric pole was broken in half,” the report says. 

The officers approached the vehicle as Hale was unsuccessfully attempting to break out the passenger’s side window. He rolled down the window and crawled out. The officers demanded that he show them his hands, and Hale ran on foot. Hannaford pursued him, caught up to him in a patch of timber and arrested him.