Fugitive Hot Springs felon arrested with two Leola men
A convicted felon being sought for parole violations who has fled from authorities several times over the last two months was apprehended Tuesday evening along with two Leola men on multiple felony charges.
Joshua Allen Fite, 31, who lists a Cooper Street address in Hot Springs, and Steven Dewayne Westfall, 46, and John Ricky Stringer, 33, who both list addresses in Leola, were taken into custody around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Spring and Cypress streets, Arkansas Community Corrections’s Special Response Team special agent Brandon Emerson told The Sentinel-Record late Tuesday.
“Arkansas State Police and ACC SRT were involved in his capture,” Emerson said. “They did awesome.”
Fite, Westfall and Stringer were all charged with simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, punishable by up to life in prison, possession of meth with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 30 years, possession of a firearm by certain persons and possession of drug paraphernalia, each punishable by up to 20 years.
Fite and Stringer were also charged with a felony count of second-degree battery and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest in connection with Tuesday’s arrest. Fite was also charged with a felony count of unauthorized use of anoth-
er person’s property to facilitate a crime, punishable by up to 20 years.
Emerson noted Fite had fled from ACC SRT agents on Aug. 22 after they made contact with him on Helen Street in Hot Springs and eluded capture and had fled again Monday after being spotted and again disappeared. He had been featured on social media on multiple occasions over the last two months seeking the public’s help in finding him.
According to the probable cause affidavit on Tuesday’s arrests, Arkansas State Police Trooper Dylan Robbins received a tip from Emerson Fite was in a red Chevrolet pickup with black lettering on the side possibly heading toward a residence on Spring Street.
Robbins spotted the pickup in the lot of a store in the 600 block of East Grand Avenue pulling out of a parking spot and pulled over on the side of the road to let the vehicle pass him. As the truck pulled down Lila Street he attempted to make a traffic stop.
The truck stopped at the corner of Cypress and Cottrell streets and Robbins and Trooper Lukas Tankersley prepared to make “a felony takedown” on the vehicle. As Robbins approached the passenger side, the truck “began to accelerate and started spinning its tires,” he said.
The truck turned onto Cypress and stopped again at its intersection with Spring and Robbins approached the driver’s side and ordered the driver, later identified as Stringer, to get out, which he did, and was taken into custody. At that point, Tankersley called for assistance and Robbins went to the passenger side where he saw Fite “actively resisting arrest.”
Robbins noted there was a silver handgun underneath the vehicle as he helped Tankersley restrain Fite and take him into custody. Robbins conducted a pat-down search of Stringer and allegedly found “a large amount of cash” in his front pocket.
He said he put Stringer in the back of his unit and then took a second passenger, identified as Westfall, into custody. In searching the vehicle, the troopers reportedly found a loaded Tech Nine handgun and suspected meth.
Agents with the 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force were contacted and responded to the scene and took possession of the vehicle and the drugs found. While en route to the detention center, Stringer allegedly admitted to buying the handgun two days prior at a pawnshop.