May 25, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
A Hammon man led authorities on a high speed pursuit in Beckham County earlier this month after allegedly stealing a car.
The chase would end with the man wrecking the vehicle.
According to the probable cause affidavit for arrest, 32-year-old Micah Jay Johnson was arrested on the morning of May 8 when he took a vehicle belonging to a woman whose home he was staying at, in Elk City. According to the report, the woman told police that Johnson woke her sometime around 3 a.m. asking for a ride. When asked where he wanted to go, he would later confess that it was to a potential drug deal. Johnson was denied the ride, but would come back into the room and allegedly take the keys to the woman’s car.
Later in the morning, while police were at the home taking a report, the owners of the vehicle would see their car drive by with Johnson driving.
Police would pursue the vehicle west, out of city limits, and would report that Johnson would elude two on-coming vehicles, and at one point reach speeds of 127 miles per hour. Eventually Johnson would wreck the vehicle in a fence belonging to a farm. A short time later an individual at the farm would contact authorities stating that saw the suspect running through the field belonging to the farm. Police would eventually find Johnson hiding in a culvert where he was placed under arrest.
Johnson was charged in Beckham County District Court with Larceny of an automobile, eluding or attempting to elude a police officer, driving without a drivers license, and leaving the scene of an accident involving damage.
A conference hearing for Johnson has been scheduled for June 14.
