Two suspects from Missouri involved in high-speed chase make initial appearance in Dunn County court
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Two of the suspects from Missouri allegedly involved in a burglary in Menomonie and a high-speed chase with law enforcement have made an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court.
Miltiano T. Johnson, age 42, and Anthony M. Jordan, age 32, made an initial appearance before Judge James Peterson September 30.
Johnson is charged with two felony counts of a burglary as a party to a crime and a vehicle operator fleeing police, and two misdemeanors counts of criminal damage to property as a party to a crime and resisting or obstructing an officer.
Jordan is charged with one felony count of burglary as a party to a crime and two misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property as a party to a crime and resisting or obstructing an officer.
Judge Peterson set bail at $20,000 cash for Johnson and at $10,000 cash for Jordan.
The defendants were scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Dunn County Circuit Court, October 5.
Burglar alarm
An officer with the Menomonie Police Department was dispatched to an alarm at T-Mobile on North Broadway in Menomonie at around 1:30 a.m. September 29.
The alarm company reported being able to see a glass break on the cameras, according to the criminal complaint.
The MPD officer did not see any vehicles in the parking lot but could see that the bottom right pane of glass had been broken and that numerous iPhones and iPads had been stolen from the store.
The loss in property for T-Mobile was later determined to be nearly $12,000, not including property damage, according to the complaint.
A Dunn County deputy responded to the scene of the T-Mobile burglary and began checking areas east of Menomonie to see if any other businesses may have been hit along the Interstate.
The deputy was scanning the Eau Claire Police Department channel and heard that a similar incident had occurred shortly before the call in Menomonie, that iPads had been stolen in a “smash and grab,” and that the suspect vehicle was described as a newer white Mercedes, the complaint states.
Mercedes
At around 2:20 a.m., the Eau Claire Police Department broadcast a description advising that the vehicle involved in the Eau Claire burglary appeared to be a Mercedes crossover SUV, white, with a black roof, according to the complaint.
In his report, which is included in the complaint, the deputy writes, “At about the same time of receiving the suspect vehicle information, I was on I-94 entering the crossover at mile post 56 near the Dunn and Eau Claire County line. At that time, I observed a matching vehicle pass by traveling westbound on I-94. I pulled out and began to follow the vehicle. I contacted the Eau Claire County communications center via police radio to confirm the vehicle description, which they did. They further advised that it appeared to be a crossover style SUV, a 200 or 300 model, with a black roof. This matched the vehicle that I was now following westbound on I-94.”
Other deputies were alerted who positioned themselves west of the first deputy’s location on I-94 to be ready for stop stick deployment.
A trooper with the Wisconsin State Patrol intercepted the deputy at mile post 52 and pulled in behind the deputy’s vehicle to assist with the felony stop. Units from the Menomonie Police Department positioned themselves around Exit 41 to channel or deter the driver from entering the city streets and more populated areas, according to the complaint.
When the deputy turned on his red and blue emergency lights and siren while passing mile post 45, the vehicle was slow to yield but eventually pulled over onto the I-94 shoulder.
The deputy began giving orders over the Public Announcement system of his squad. He could see a black male driver who placed his hands out of the window and opened the driver’s door slightly but refused to exit the vehicle. After about a minute, the driver slammed the door and began to speed off. The deputy and the state trooper followed in pursuit, according to the complaint.
100 mph
The suspect vehicle reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, and as the pursuit reached mile post 43, other sheriff’s squad vehicles were on both sides of I-94 immediately after the bridge.
The suspect vehicle attempted to swerve around the tire deflation devices but was unsuccessful. After passing the squad vehicles, the suspect accelerated again to about 80 mph and continued to flee westbound, according to the complaint.
Menomonie Police Department squads were set up in the crossover near mile post 42 where a Menomonie officer had attempted to deploy another set of stop sticks.
Menomonie squads were on the Exit 41 westbound off ramp to channel the vehicle away from the exit ramp, using a stationary roadblock with an escape route, to prevent the suspect from exiting I-94.
The suspect continued to flee westbound. The vehicle began to lose a tire, and the deputy saw sparks underneath the vehicle and small pieces of plastic fly off the vehicle. The SUV slowed down and moved toward the shoulder, drove off the highway near mile post 41 west of the exit ramp and entered a grassy ditch, the complaint states.
The doors of the vehicle opened and three people fled on foot. The driver was a black male wearing a white t-shirt and black pants. The front passenger was a black male wearing a blue hoodie, and a third passenger was a black male wearing a black hoodie with white lettering or a design on the back of the sweatshirt.
All of the men ran on foot over the Interstate fence and northbound into the wooded area.
The deputy pursued the men on foot for a short distance but lost sight of them near the tree-line and then waited for the K9 officers to arrive, according to the complaint.
K9 teams
A Dunn County K9 team responded and also a K9 team from the Eau Claire Police Department. The K9 teams arrived at about 3 a.m.
Law enforcement officers made PA announcements into the wooded area to let the suspects know that K9 units were deploying, and if they did not surrender, the dogs would locate them, and they could be bitten by the dogs, the complaint states.
Two suspects were located at about 3:30 a.m., hiding in the woods along a steep embankment directly east of the Menomonie Archery Club and north of I-94. The two men surrendered and cooperated with law enforcement, according to the complaint.
The men were identified by their Missouri identification cards as Miltiano T. Johnson and Anthony Michael Jordan.
The deputy writes in his report, which is included in the complaint, that “both subjects said they were ‘alone’ and were wet and sweaty as though they had been running through the woods. Johnson was wearing a white t-shirt with black pants. Jordan was shirtless. Both males were transported to the Dunn County Jail.”
The complaint goes on to say the K9 teams continued to search for the third suspect, but the dogs became “worn out” and the K9 search was terminated.
Minnesota registration
The vehicle that was used to flee from law enforcement was registered to a woman who lived in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
When the owner was contacted at her residence to see if the vehicle had been stolen or who may have been driving it, she said her boyfriend, Miltiano Johnson, had her vehicle and should have been on his way to Missouri, according to the complaint.
The woman told law enforcement she had last had contact with Johnson the afternoon of September 28 when he called her from a friend’s phone he had borrowed because he had reportedly lost his phone at a casino.
The woman did not mention the names of anyone that Johnson should have been with, the complaint states.
Photos
The Eau Claire Police Department provided photographs of the suspect vehicle involved in the burglary in Eau Claire, and the photos both appeared to match the vehicle in the Menomonie case.
The black colored roof, color of the vehicle and the style all matched “very clearly.” The vehicle in the photograph also did not have a front license plate, which was consistent with the vehicle involved in the burglary in Menomonie and the high speed chase, according to the complaint.
The Eau Claire Police Department also had obtained a video from the store owner where the burglary occurred in Eau Claire showing the three suspects entering the store, and the clothing description and physical description matched the three that fled from the vehicle stopped by law enforcement near Menomonie, the complaint states.
In his report, the deputy writes that he could not see much inside the vehicle but in the back trunk, he could see what appeared to be a large rock, the size of a cantaloupe, that he suspected was used as the tool to smash and break windows.
Additional criminal charges are expected from the Menomonie Police Department and Eau Claire Police Department regarding the burglary investigations, the complaint states.
Off duty
A Dunn County Sheriff’s Department sergeant who was off duty at the time was notified by dispatch of the vehicle pursuit and all three occupants fleeing.
The deputy who pursued the vehicle called a short time later to request additional units to assist with the perimeter, according to the complaint.
The sergeant contacted additional off-duty deputies to respond.
When the sergeant reached the scene, he took over custody of Miltiano Johnson, found cash in Johnson’s pants pockets and noted that Johnson did not have a shirt on but that he had a shirt and white tank top stuffed into the front of his pants.
The sergeant copied radio traffic in which the officers said they had located clothing along the K9 track.
In the sergeant’s report, which is included in the complaint, the sergeant wrote, “I asked him where the other person was because I did not want them to freeze if they had also shed clothes as it was about 30 degrees at the time. He denied that there was another person. He was told that three people got out of the vehicle. Once we walked back to the squad, he admitted there was another person but that none of them were from around here, so he had no idea where they went. He acted if as if he (Johnson) did not know them, stating he only got a ride from them.”
Clothing
According to a report from a Menomonie police officer included in the complaint, when the two suspects were located by Dunn County sheriff’s deputies, they both appeared to be wearing fewer clothes than at the start of the pursuit.
A lieutenant with the Menomonie Police Department did a secondary search of the area during daylight hours, and in the woods where the two men were found, discovered numerous articles of clothing matching the description of the two suspects from the burglary, the complaint states.
The clothing included a tan pair of boots, a dark blue hoodie, black shoes, black plants with white draw strings, gloves and white t-shirts, according to the complaint.
