An Arkansas couple arrested mid-September following a high speed chase that left a game warden injured has been indicted by a Bowie County grand jury.
Game wardens were called to the River Bend Farms area near Richmond on the afternoon of Sept. 15 by a man who noticed an unfamiliar SUV on his property as he was out in a field operating a tractor. Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. game warden Shawn Hervey’s foot and ankle were injured when the man driving the SUV with a female passenger sped away on County Road 2302 after the warden asked them if they were lost.
Hervey, Warden Daniel Kessler and sheriff’s deputies pursued the SUV through the area at unsafe speeds until the SUV was stuck between a farmer’s tractor and law enforcement vehicles. The driver, identified as Ryan Ashley King, 39, of Grady, Ark., jumped out and ran. When tackled and pepper sprayed, King reportedly continued to struggle with Hervey. Once placed in a deputy’s patrol car, King allegedly kicked out the back window.
Inside the SUV, officers found Monica Esquivel, 37, of Pine Bluff, Ark. They also discovered a long knife near the driver’s seat, an open beer, methamphetamine, syringes, a glass pipe and jewelry that had been reported stolen from a nearby home.
King was indicted Dec. 10 for a number of felony offenses: burglary of a habitation, punishable by two to 20 years; evading in a vehicle, punishable by two to ten years; possession of a controlled substance, punishable by two to ten years; and aggravated assault on a peace officer, punishable by five to 99 years or life. Esquivel was indicted for possession of a controlled substance and faces two to ten years if convicted.
