Hearing rescheduled for car theft suspect
The attorney representing a suspected serial car thief was given more time Tuesday in Yuma County Superior Court to continue working on a plea agreement that would resolve all the cases against his client.
Bill Fox, of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, who represents D’Andre Jermain Norman, informed the court that he had been to the assigned prosecutor in the case and was told that new charges were filed against his client on Monday.
As a result, he said he would like an opportunity to meet with the prosecutor again in order to see if it would be possible to rework the current plea deal that has been offered to his client to take into account the new charges.
Norman, who already had three cases against him, had been charged with six counts of theft of transportation and one count each of unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement and theft. The most recent charges are two counts of aggravated assault.
Superior Court judge Stephen Rouff, who is presiding over the case, granted Fox’s request and rescheduled the hearing for 8:30 a.m. on June 6.
Norman was taken into custody in December after U.S. Marshals and Yuma police spotted him driving a 1997 Ford F-150 pickup in the 2500 block of W. 8th Street.
When Yuma police attempted to make a traffic stop on the vehicle, the truck sped away. Shortly afterward Norman crashed into another truck in the 1800 block of South Madison Avenue, then started to run away from the scene.
Police set up a perimeter around the area, then found Norman in the front yard of a vacant home in the 1800 block of South Maple Street. He was taken into custody and booked into Yuma County Jail without further incident.
Authorities had been searching for Norman since a Nov. 28 incident when he allegedly stole a truck at the Hampton Inn, crashed into another car near Sanguinetti Park and hit a brick wall in the 2000 block of S. 14th Street, before running away from the scene and evading a police search. One non-life threatening injury was reported in the collision near the park.
According to a Yuma Sun report, Norman had been arrested twice last fall after being pulled over in cars police said had been reported stolen. On Oct. 24, he was arrested on the probation warrant out of Maricopa County and sent back two days later.
By Nov. 7 he’d returned to Yuma, and reportedly confessed to stealing the Volkswagen he was pulled over in three days earlier.
Norman was booked into Yuma County jail on one charge of theft of means of transportation, another felony theft charge and a misdemeanor theft charge. He made an initial appearance in court the same day, but was released after his arraignment two days later after no charges were filed.
Charges were not filed because the Yuma County Attorney’s Office had requested follow-up information on the case, according to Justice Court records.
Norman is also a suspect in vehicle thefts reported Oct. 20 and Nov. 24, police have said.