A man was arrested early Friday following a chase through three counties and a standoff.
The chase ended in Fruit Heights just off U.S. 89 after the man crashed through a fence and into a tree.
The 30-year-old man was indicted Wednesday in federal court for health-care fraud. He was also wanted by Adult Probation and Parole and was about to be named Utah's Most Wanted, said Davis County Sheriff's Lt. Brad Wilcox.
"He knew he was in trouble," said Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Burns. "We knew he would put up a fight."
FBI agents and Weber County sheriff's deputies began looking for the man at his Washington Terrace home late Thursday night to serve an arrest warrant. Because the man lived across the street from Bonneville High School, agents wanted to complete the arrest before school started, Wilcox said.
Unknown to deputies at the time, the man allegedly stole OxyContin from Walgreens in Roy during a 2 a.m. armed robbery, Wilcox said.
About 3 a.m. the man showed up at his house, Burns said. The man parked his truck in his driveway and just sat there, he said. About a half-hour later, deputies approached the truck to arrest him.
"We gave him a verbal command (to surrender) and he put (the truck) in gear and left," Burns said.
The ensuing chase reached speeds of 80 mph on the freeway and 45 mph in residential areas. The chase lasted more than an hour and a half and stretched from Weber County to Box Elder County and back down to Davis County, Burns said.
On U.S. 89 near Uintah, deputies were able to spike the man's two front tires. But he continued driving for some distance on his rims, Burns said.
The chase ended just off U.S. 89 near 400 North when the truck went off the road, crashed through a fence and came to a rest after hitting a tree in Clifford Curtis' back yard about 5:40 a.m.
The driver's head hit the steering wheel before his body slouched down as if he was in a daze, Curtis said. The man didn't say a word but refused officers' commands to get out of the vehicle or put his hands up, he said.
At that point, Curtis said, he and several other residents were evacuated and moved to a house farther away.
Wendy Wright and her children had just gotten out of bed when police told them to evacuate.
"They said, 'You're in the line of fire, get out.' I'm just glad it's over," she said.
About 15 minutes after the standoff began, the driver surrendered peacefully. He was taken to a hospital in Layton to be checked out for non-life-threatening injuries, Wilcox said.
Inside the man's truck officers found a handgun, several syringes and what appeared to be prescription pill bottles.
The man and his former wife were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of health-care fraud. The couple failed to notify their health-insurance provider of their 1994 divorce, and the man continued to submit claims under his former wife's insurance.
The man's criminal history includes arrests for forging prescriptions and fraud, according to court records.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com