2015-01-14 Carjacking

Amarillo Car Chase and Robbery Case

Two Amarillo residents were arrested following a car chase that ended in a wreck on the north Interstate 27 frontage road near South Western Street on Tuesday afternoon.

Arrests

Stephanie Denise Aycock, 23, of Amarillo, was arrested as the driver of a stolen Chrysler 300. Her passenger, David Wayne Kimball, 31, also of Amarillo, was arrested on a robbery charge linked to an earlier carjacking and four local municipal warrants. Both were booked into Randall County Jail.

Initial Carjacking Incident

The incident began at approximately 1 p.m. Tuesday when Amarillo police were dispatched to the 400 block of South Prospect Street on a robbery that had just occurred. Officers spoke with a 30-year-old man who said he was the victim of a carjacking a few minutes earlier.

The victim told police he had recently purchased a 2005 black Chrysler and was driving through the San Jacinto neighborhood when he noticed a woman tailing him in a Ford Escape. On a residential street, the woman cut him off, forcing him to stop.

The woman left the Escape, approached the man, and told him the Chrysler had been stolen from her. She raised her shirt slightly and showed the man a pistol butt in her waistband. As the pair argued, a third man in a gray extended-cab pickup pulled up and claimed the Chrysler was his.

After arguing for a while, the pickup driver told the woman to drive the Chrysler to another location. The carjacking victim was told to get in the passenger side of the Chrysler, which he did. The woman then drove away in the Chrysler as the pickup followed. An unknown person climbed into the Ford Escape the woman had been driving and followed the pickup and the Chrysler. The Ford Escape had been reported stolen on January 9.

As they drove away in the Chrysler, the woman told the carjacking victim that the people in the other vehicles were going to kill her. She then sped up and attempted to elude the other vehicles. The pickup driver forced the Chrysler over at Eighth Avenue and Maryland Street, and the Escape pulled in behind and boxed the Chrysler in.

The pickup driver approached the Chrysler, pulled the woman out of the car, and began assaulting her. The pickup driver then told the male victim to get out of the Chrysler and drove off. The occupants of the Escape tried to leave, but their vehicle wouldn't start and they fled from the Escape. The woman driving the Chrysler then took off walking. Some time later, she returned to the vehicle.

Police Chase and Crash

At approximately 4:30 p.m., a DPS trooper observed the stolen Chrysler in the area of 26th Avenue and Paramount Boulevard. The Chrysler driver, identified as Aycock, sped off and a chase ensued.

DPS Trooper Chris Ray said an unmarked Amarillo Police Department unit followed the Chrysler. A trooper in a marked DPS vehicle then tried to pull over the Chrysler, but Aycock refused to stop while traveling north on Western Street and turned left onto the north I-27 frontage road. She was speeding, which caused her to lose control and hit a black GMC Sierra pickup parked at Jimmy Fincher Body Shop, 5827 Canyon Drive.

Charges

Aycock was arrested on charges of:

• Evading arrest
• Unauthorized use of a motor vehicle
• Abandonment or endangering a child (a 12-year-old passenger who was released to his parents)

Kimball was arrested on the robbery charge linked to the San Jacinto carjacking and four local municipal warrants.

Both remained in Randall County Jail on Wednesday. Police said the incident remains under investigation.