Florida man arrested by law enforcement following pursuit
LAKE COUNTY >> According to information released by the Lake County Sheriff’s office, on Monday at approximately 3 a.m., Lake County Sheriff’s dispatch received a call from a woman living in the 10600 block of Bottle Rock Road in Kelseyville reporting four men broke into her house, fired several shots, and took marijuana from the residence. The suspects then left the area in a white Sprinter type van and a U-haul truck.
The victim reported that all four men were armed with handguns.
Responding deputies saw a U-haul truck traveling north on Highway 29 near Highland Springs Road. The deputies attempted to stop the UHaul, but it continued on Highway 29 at 80 MPH. The deputies observed items being thrown from the truck in the area of Highland Springs Road.
The pursuit continued across the Nice-lucerne Cutoff to Highway 20. The U-haul continued east on Highway 20 where officers from the California Highway Patrol joined the pursuit. The pursuit continued on Highway 20 until it reached the area of the World Mark Resort. The U
Haul made a U-turn and as it did one of the suspects jumped out and fled towards the lake. The UHaul then drove west on Highway 20 turning into the World Mark Resort. The U-haul slowed in the parking lot and two more suspects jumped out fleeing on foot while the UHaul was still rolling. The U-haul eventually stopped after jumping a curb and crashing into a sign for the resort.
Officers pursued the suspects, but lost sight of them in the resort. Officers were able to locate a man matching the suspect’s description who was hiding under a staircase. The suspect ran from the officers going up to the second story and jumping off the second story balcony. The suspect continued to run a short distance before surrendering to officers. The suspect was identified as Rodney Ly dell Hutchinson ,38, of Crest view, Florida. When questioned, Hutchinson told officer she was home-less and only ran because he had a warrant for his arrest out of Florida. Hutchinson denied being one of the men that ran from the U-Haul. Officers searched the U-Haul lo-cating several plastic con-tainers and trash bags con-taining marijuana. An officer from the Lake port Police Depart-ment had also responded to assist locating items that had been thrown out of the U-Haul during the pursuit. Officers found hand guns, cellphones, and gloves. Hutchinson was ar-rested and booked at the Lake County Jail on charges of robbery, as-sault with a firearm, eva d-ing, felony possession of a fire arm, carrying a loaded fire arm, and conspiracy. He remains in custody with bail set at $150,000. The Sheriff’ s Major Crimes Unit responded and continued the inves-tigation. The Sheriff’ s Of-fice is asking anyone with information regarding this investigation and the iden-tity of the outstanding sus-pects to contact Detective Jeff Mo ra at 707-262-4224.