By Rachel Brandes
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted July 23, 2008
An escaped convict arrived in Moapa Valley on Tuesday, July 15 and immediately went about increasing his criminal record. William R. Vincent an escaped convict from Wyoming was arrested on Tuesday after an interesting sequence of events in Moapa Valley took place.
It was approximately 9:30 a.m. when Overton Power District employee Richard Jones spotted what he called “a suspicious man and vehicle” parked near the OPD warehouse in Overton. Jones approached the man to inquire about what he was doing. The man responded that he was picking up tools for a buddy. Jones asked who the buddy was. When a fictitious name was given Jones suspected, foul play.
The suspect engaged in a brief scuffle with Jones before fleeing in his vehicle. This vehicle was a stolen vehicle out of Wyoming. Jones followed the suspect and phoned OPD General Manager Delmar Leatham to report what had just taken place. Leatham phoned 911. Additional OPD workers joined in the pursuit to back up Jones if necessary. OPD workers wanted to keep an eye on the suspect until Metro was able to respond. During the pursuit Jones witnessed the suspect traveling at high rates of speed and passing cars on the right. Jones and the others lost the suspect in the vicinity of the Gubler Bridge.
But the suspect didn’t make it far after that. He traveled a bit further down Moapa Valley Boulevard continuing straight on Gubler and turning down Bronze Eagle Court. When he realized he had just turned down a dead end road and knew he was being followed he fled the vehicle and made a run for it.
One resident of Bronze Eagle Circle reported that she saw the suspect exit his vehicle and run through her backyard. She didn’t think much of it at the time as the vehicle resembled the vehicle of a worker she was expecting. A few minutes later, Metro and OPD vehicles showed up in front of her house. Metro continued to search in the area for the suspect but with no luck.
Vincent didn’t resurface in the neighborhood until approximately 1:00 p.m.. At that point, he entered the garage of Renee Terry and stole her vehicle. Terry resides on Gubler just next to Bronze Eagle Court.
Terry said that she generally doesn’t leave the garage open but she had it open that day because she had workers in her yard. It was around 2:00 p.m. when she entered her garage and found her vehicle missing. Workers stated they had seen a man driving away about an hour prior. They had assumed it was a family member not thinking anything out of the ordinary. Terry immediately phoned 911 and reported the theft.
In the meantime the suspect had fled southbound on I-15 at a high rate of speed; fast enough that Nevada Highway Patrolman Joe Lawrence pulled the suspect over for speeding.
Not realizing this was a man that Metro was searching for all morning the officer proceeded with a routine stop. When vehicle information didn’t match up and the officer noticed a purse on the seat next to the suspect, the Trooper became suspicious. Realizing this, the suspect immediately fled continuing south on I-15.
Trooper Lawrence phoned ahead and had spikes laid out on the highway. When Vincent spotted the spikes ahead he reportedly swerved to miss them sending the vehicle approximately 150 feet off the road into the desert.
Vincent was subsequently arrested and transported to the Clark County Detention Center. He was charged with a Felony Possession of a Stolen Vehicle and also charged with Basic Speeding, Reckless Driving, Evading and Eluding, and Obstructing a Police Officer. Vincent is currently awaiting extradition back to Wyoming. All Nevada charges will be held in the system in the event that Vincent returns to this state these charges will be enforced.
Police aren’t quite sure what brought Vincent from Wyoming to Moapa Valley but they do suspect a connection which might have brought him here.
