Alleged Jan. van carjacking: More details come to light
Bonds set at $500,000 and $350,000, respectively
Bonds were set Wednesday and more details have emerged in the case against two Tennessee men charged in the alleged carjacking of a prisoner transport van Jan. 30 along Interstate 24 in Marion County and leading police on a 30-mile chase into Chattanooga.
Brian Alex Stone, 28, of Chattanooga, and Richard James Gerald, 18, of Johnson City, appeared before Marion County General Sessions Judge Marshal Raines Jr. on Wednesday in Jasper for a bond hearing, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office Detective Gene Hargis.
Stone’s bond was set at $500,000 while Gerald’s was set at $350,000, according to Marion County detectives Chad Johnson and Jake Weeks, who are also working on the case. Stone and Gerald face a preliminary hearing Feb. 22, Johnson said Wednesday via text.
Stone is represented by Public Defender Ted Engel’s office, while Pikeville, Tennessee, attorney Randy Clark was appointed to represent Gerald, according to the Marion County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Engel declined to comment on the case and Clark was in court Wednesday, according to his office, and could not be reached for comment.
Hargis was able to provide more information about what authorities believe happened Jan. 30 when Stone and Gerald allegedly carjacked a Tennessee Department of Children’s Services prisoner transport van carrying a 15-year-old from a Juvenile Court hearing in Chattanooga to a state detention facility in another county, Hargis said Wednesday in a phone interview.
Investigators determined Gerald and the 15-year-old were brothers who possibly shared or became privy to information about the transport van and its destination at some point, Hargis said.
The juvenile had been sentenced for seconddegree murder in a case in Johnson City, he said.
According to investigators, Stone and Gerald were in a Nissan Versa trailing the transport van when it got off at Exit 143 on I-24 East, an interchange with only one convenience store in the area of Ladds Cove and Martin Springs roads.
“They intercepted the driver and followed him into the bathroom,” Hargis said Wednesday. “They produced a weapon inside the bathroom.”
Hargis said the van had a lone transport officer and he was outnumbered.
Marion County Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett said Wednesday by phone the driver of such a vehicle usually makes bathroom stops only at police departments and sheriff’s offices along their route, not convenience stores.
“They exited the gas station — one drives the DCS van that’s presumed to be Gerald — and Stone and the juvenile get into the car,” Hargis said. “They leave the parking lot, nose-to-tail, and get on eastbound I-24 toward Chattanooga.”
Before long, police spotted the vehicles near Exit 152 on I-24 near the town of Kimball about 10 miles southeast of the carjacking location, he said. The van was found abandoned.
“A few moments later the DCS van is reported parked on the interstate in the lane of traffic, and Gerald was taken into custody on Industrial Drive near the Valmont Utility area adjacent to where the vehicle was found on the interstate,” Hargis said. “Then the other units continued the chase into Chattanooga where they were able to finally force the car to stop at the South Broad Street exit.”
The juvenile and Stone were apprehended there, Hargis said.
Stone was additionally being sought in connection with a shooting earlier in the day Jan. 30, Marion County authorities learned while booking him into the Marion County Jail.
Hamilton County has four outstanding warrants for his arrest on a charge of attempted firstdegree murder in connection with the shooting reported a couple of hours earlier in the 6400 block of Ooltewah-Georgetown Road where two people were hospitalized with serious injuries from gunfire.
Chattanooga Police Department records show Gerald was charged Jan. 18 with having a stolen 9 mm pistol and suspected marijuana with him in the 14th Street area of Chattanooga.