Inmate wrangles gun from deputy at county complex

Police: Man arrested without further incident after stealing car at gunpoint

Sheila McGuire and Bryon Glathar, Herald Reporters
Posted 6/29/18

Prisoner steals gun, car at Evanston courthouse

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Inmate wrangles gun from deputy at county complex

Police: Man arrested without further incident after stealing car at gunpoint

Posted

EVANSTON — An inmate who police say assaulted a sheriff’s deputy at the courthouse, took her gun and stole a car at gunpoint is in custody after a brief manhunt in Evanston.

Jonathan Olivares, 25, was apprehended at approximately 11:15 a.m. in the area of 100 Main Street on Tuesday, June 26.

Olivares was in Third District Court that morning, where he pleaded not guilty to delivering heroin and wrongly taking or concealing a stolen car. As he was being escorted out of the courtroom, he allegedly attacked and struck the female deputy. Scanner traffic at about 10:40 a.m. called for all law enforcement to respond to the Uinta County Complex and indicated that an officer’s firearm had been stolen.

Evanston Police Lt. Ken Pearson said Olivares then stole a car from a local woman, Debbie Garrison, at gunpoint and fled the scene in a 2008 blue Ford Escape. He was seen traveling south on 8th Street in the stolen vehicle.

An ambulance was called to stage in the parking lot of the Uinta County Library to attend to the injured deputy, who was treated for minor injuries and released. Uinta County Sheriff Doug Matthews said the deputy has asked for privacy, so he has not yet released her name.

Law enforcement attempted to locate Olivares at a business on Allegiance Circle (Olivares’s Facebook page lists Frontier Heat Treating as his employer), but he wasn’t there. Utah Highway Patrol units were notified to be on the lookout in case Olivares attempted to flee to Utah. 

Olivares was able to elude law enforcement for approximately 30 minutes. The stolen vehicle was spotted by an alert firefighter near the intersection of 6th and Front streets and followed until officers were able to catch up to the suspect. A brief vehicle pursuit occurred before Olivares was apprehended and taken into custody.

Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson said she was in the courtroom when she heard a scuffle in the hallway immediately after Olivares left the courtroom. She ran out the main courtroom door toward Circuit Court, where another deputy was overseeing inmates at the time. As she ran down the hall, she yelled, telling people to evacuate the building.

Olivares allegedly took a back hallway, and several witnesses said they saw him leave the building. Meantime, officers and deputies in bulletproof vests and armed with tactical rifles worked to surround the county complex as people continued to leave the building.

Once Howieson alerted people about the situation, others began to help.

“There were a number of people involved,” she said. “Scott Sergeant was in the atrium by circuit court. He’s a public defender and also a former law enforcement officer … so he helped.”

Matthews said Robbie Day, the deputy in circuit court, also helped during an intense situation.

Howieson said that aside from clearing the courthouse and making sure she could do her part to get people to safety as quickly as possible, she was then very worried about the general public and law enforcement after Olivares fled.

But that worry didn’t last too long.

“That was all handled very professionally and quickly,” she said.

Prisoners transported to and from the courthouse are handcuffed and also have ankle chains and waist chains, restricting their ability to move quickly. In circuit court, those restraints remain unaltered. 

In district court, however, prisoners’ handcuffs are routinely taken off just before entering the courtroom and put back on in the hallway just after leaving the courtroom. That was the moment Olivares seized, according to Sheriff Matthews. After overpowering the deputy and taking her gun, Matthews said, Olivares also took the deputy’s keys and was able to unlock his ankle and waist chains.

“It has been the policy of Judge (Joseph) Bluemel that he did not want detainees in … handcuffs,” Howieson said. “So in circuit court they are regularly cuffed and hobbled, but in district court they have not been.”

Howieson said that while she does not agree with Bluemel’s policy regarding restraints, she understands the stance the judge takes with the policy, citing defendants’ presumption of innocence and allowing them a sense of dignity. And she said she trusts others to take steps to avoid a similar and dangerous situation.

“I am confident that he (Bluemel) and the sheriff will work together to minimize the risk,” she said.

Matthews said Wednesday that he’s already spoken to Bluemel about courtroom security and plans to talk with him again.

“I already have talked with Judge Bluemel about that, just briefly,” Matthews said. “But, you know, the courtroom is his, and he calls the shots in the courtroom. … But yes, I’ll be voicing my concern further.”

Bluemel did not return phone messages from the Herald by press time.

Olivares wasn’t the only arrest made during Tuesday’s incident. Matthews said Olivares broke into the house located at 100 Main Street, where he was eventually arrested. As law enforcement was sweeping the house, they found drug paraphernalia. Heather Maakestad was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance and possessing paraphernalia.

Maakestad was in the house at the time, along with the homeowner, Horace Rhodes. Lt. Pearson said Maakestad is dating Rhodes’ son, Colten Rhodes, who wasn’t at the residence at the time.

Howieson said Olivares initially held Horace Rhodes at gunpoint when he arrived at the residence.

Matthews praised those involved and said cooperation among the agencies involved was a big reason the incident didn’t escalate.

“We worked really good together yesterday,” the sheriff told the Herald on Wednesday. “I was really amazed that everything went so smooth between all of us. … As far as the PD and sheriff’s office … there was really good coordination involved. DCI was involved, and we’re working really good together.”

Matthews said dispatchers deserve a lot of credit, too.

“Dispatch received over 230 [phone] calls and calls on the radio in that hour or so period,” he said. “They were just super busy.”

Matthews said some people complained because a code red alert wasn’t sent out to residents.

“We prepared right from the beginning [for] a code red alert to go out,” he said, “and no one had time to get it out before we had the suspect in custody.”

He said his office is looking at ways to improve the alert process.

According to Herald records, Olivares has a long history of arrests. His name has appeared in police and sheriff’s reports with arrests including possessing stolen property, driving while under suspension, criminal trespassing, domestic battery, possessing a controlled substance, protection order violation and probation violations. 

Charges connected to Tuesday’s incident were not filed by press time, though Howieson said Thursday she intends to charge Olivares with the following crimes:

• Interference with a peace officer – knowingly and intentionally causing bodily injury (felony, maximum of 10 years imprisonment)

• Interference with a peace officer – knowingly and intentionally disarming a peace officer of his or her firearm (felony, maximum of five years imprisonment)

• Theft (misdemeanor, maximum of six months imprisonment, a $750 fine, or both)

• Escape (felony, maximum of 10 years imprisonment)

• Aggravated robbery (felony, minimum of five years and maximum of 25 years imprisonment)

• Theft (felony, maximum of 10 years imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, or both)

• Aggravated assault and battery – threatening with a deadly weapon (felony, maximum of 10 years imprisonment)