Spencer man jailed for carjacking
GREENCASTLE -- A Spencer man remained in jail Thursday after being formally charged in Putnam County Circuit Court with Class B felony carjacking.
Brandon L. Elwood, 24, also faces charges of Class D felonies resisting law enforcement, battery by bodily waste, auto theft and theft, Class A misdemeanor operating a vehicle with at least .15 grams of alcohol in .210 liters of breath, Class B misdemeanor criminal mischief and Class C misdemeanor operating while intoxicated.
At his initial hearing, Elwood pled not guilty to all charges. He requested pauper counsel and Joel Wieneke was assigned to the case. Judge Matthew Headley set Elwood's bond at $40,000 with 10 percent allowed, with the caveat that if Elwood's bond were to be posted he would be required to hook up to electronic home monitoring through Putnam County Community Corrections.
According to a narrative prepared by Putnam County Sheriff's Department Deputy Virgil Lanning, Lanning was dispatched just before 4 a.m. on Aug. 7 to Stardust Hills subdivision in Cloverdale to check on a report of criminal mischief.
"Dispatch advised that they had received a call about a vehicle that had struck several mailboxes," the report said. "While en route, dispatch advised that they had received another call from Stardust about a male subject that was beating on the door of a residence and yelling. The caller advised that the male was wearing shorts, no shirt and had tattoos."
At that point, witnesses told police the man who had struck the mailboxes had driven away in a silver Lincoln.
Lanning was then flagged down by a man who lived on Stardust Court who told Lanning the Lincoln had struck several mailboxes and was possible still in the subdivision.
The witness described the man driving the Lincoln as "a white male with brown hair" who was not wearing a shirt and had several tattoos, the report said.
Lanning patrolled the Stardust area for several minutes, and was then alerted that a carjacking had just occurred on Burma Road. A dispatcher informed Lanning that the person who had stolen the car had also made off with the alleged victim's cell phone.
Lanning went to the location of the reported carjacking, and found a silver Lincoln in the ditch with its driver's door open and its engine running.
"(The alleged victim) stated that he was eastbound on Burma Road when he observed a car in the ditch near C.R. 100E," Lanning's report said.
The alleged victim told Lanning he had stopped to help the driver of the car in the ditch. The alleged victim said the driver had been wearing "green shorts, no shirt and had tattoos."
The driver asked to use the alleged victim's cell phone, the alleged victim told Lanning, and then grabbed the phone, punched the alleged victim in the testicles and told him to stay near the ditched car.
The suspect then got into the alleged victim's car and took off in the direction of Cloverdale, Lanning's report said.
The alleged victim ran to a nearby residence to phone 911.
As Lanning was gathering information from the alleged victim, dispatch advised Lanning that they had received a phone call from the Cloverdale Marathon station advising a man wearing shorts, no shirt and who was "covered in tattoos was at the station acting odd."
The attendant at the station also said the man was driving a red Nissan, which matched the description of the alleged carjacking victim's vehicle, and that he had left traveling westbound.
Another sheriff's department deputy spotted the vehicle and attempted to stop it on U.S. 231. Lanning's report said the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed.
Lanning and Deputy Dwight Simmons both pursued the vehicle, which ended up crashing near the intersection of U.S. 231 and Stardust Road.
"The driver fled on foot and was tazed and taken into custody," the report said.
The driver was determined to be Elwood.
A pretrial conference in the case was set for Sept. 30.
If convicted on all charges, Elwood could be sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.