A Florida man allegedly made threats to another person before leading police on a chase from Westover to Morgantown’s Greenmont neighborhood, where he crashed the stolen truck he was driving into a porch.
Cody Grimmett, 23, of Mount Dora, Fla., is charged with fleeing from an officer with reckless indifference, malicious assault, destruction of property and receiving or transferring stolen property.
Westover Police attempted to stop a white pickup truck with Florida plates, because the truck was the suspected vehicle in a threats complaint where the suspect was chasing the complainant and threatening to kill them, but the driver refused to pull over, according to a criminal complaint.
The chase was reported to 911 at 10:16 p.m. Monday, according to a 911 supervisor.
The truck crossed over Westover Bridge into Morgantown and two Monongalia County Sheriff’s deputies took over the chase, attempting to stop the truck with lights and sirens, the complaint said.
The driver refused to pull over and entered Morgantown’s residential South Park and Greenmont neighborhoods, going 35-40 mph while ignoring stop signs, according to the complaint. At one point, the truck passed another vehicle using the sidewalk.
The truck turned onto Dewey Street — a dead end — and began quickly driving backwards. A deputy was unable to get his cruiser out of the way in time and the driver “intentionally slammed” his vehicle into the front of a sheriff’s cruiser, pushing it backward until the driver could make a left turn onto Arch Street, the complaint said.
The driver then got on Brockway Avenue and crashed into a porch, the complaint said.
The home’s owner, Brad Yost, said he is trying to sell the building and the accident happened at a bad time.
Yost and an insurance agent were looking at the damage Thursday afternoon. The insurance agent said the home is structurally sound but the porch has structural issues.
Morgantown’s Code Enforcement placed a notice warning of code violation, noting the missing support post needed replaced and the debris from the wreck needed cleaned up Tuesday.
The driver of the vehicle fled toward Deckers Creek and neither passenger nor driver could be immediately found, the complaint said. One suspect was wearing a black shirt and the other was wearing a camo jacket.
West Virginia State Police conducted a patrol across the creek and found wet shoe prints on a concrete slab, directly across from where the suspects were believed to have crossed the creek, the complaint said. A K-9 from Granville Police was called to the scene and a soaking wet man wearing a black shirt was found lying on the ground behind a large building.
The man said his name was Jacob Mosher, from Florida. He told law enforcement he was sleeping behind the building and was wet because of the rain. The criminal complaint notes it had not rained.
The truck was reported stolen from Florida and the name Grimmett gave police did not return a match in any state, according to the complaint.
Grimmett was arraigned in Monongalia County Magistrate Court by Magistrate Tim Pocius and is being held in North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond.
