A 29 year old DeKalb County man, on the TBI’s Most Wanted List, who escaped from the DeKalb County Jail in September 2004 was arrested in Mexico Thursday while applying for a passport
Sheriff Patrick Ray and the TBI say Toby Lynn Young, while in Mexico illegally, was attempting to apply for a passport under his brother’s name. He did not possess any official papers to be in Mexico. Young confessed to his true identity and the fact that he was wanted in Tennessee.
Sheriff Ray and Special Agent Billy Miller of the TBI worked to confirm Young’s status as a fugitive through birth records and warrants.
According to Sheriff Ray, Young is wanted in DeKalb County for felony escape, theft over $1,000 (for stealing a horse), and failure to appear in court on charges including a second offense of driving on a revoked license, reckless endangerment, evading arrest with a vehicle, two counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle, and theft over $1,000 (for stealing a vehicle). He is also wanted for violation of probation in DeKalb County. In addition, Sheriff Ray says Young is wanted by the Cannon County Sheriff’s Department for failure to appear and by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department for theft over $1,000. The State Board of Probation and Parole also wants Young for Parole Violation.
Young was added to the TBI’s Most Wanted list in October, 2008.
Sheriff Ray and the TBI say Young will be transferred Friday to Phoenix, Arizona and will be booked as a Fugitive from Justice. He will then be extradited to Tennessee to face his charges here. Young is under a $570,000 bond on the failure to appear in DeKalb County, a $1,000 bond for violation of probation in DeKalb County, and a $25,000 bond for felony escape in DeKalb County.
In September, 2004, Lloyd Emmons, who was Sheriff at the time, said that Young led deputies on a high speed chase after stealing a van. During the pursuit, Young ran several vehicles off the road and rammed a patrol car. After a short foot pursuit, Young was arrested and charged. Only a few days after Young’s arrest, he overpowered a correctional officer at the jail and escaped. He remained at large until his arrest Thursday in Mexico.
The following is the story as reported by WJLE at the time of Young’s arrest in September, 2004.
A 25 year old man is being held without bond after leading authorities on a chase in a stolen Ford Aerostar van Thursday morning (September 2nd, 2004).
Toby L. Young of Pea Ridge, Liberty is charged with theft of property, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, felony evading arrest, and driving on a revoked license.
Sheriff Lloyd Emmons and Deputy David Ward say Young was driving a van, belonging to Maria Loredo Quzada. The vehicle was reported stolen at 10:53 a.m. Thursday from a residence at 4583 Students Home Road. Young was arrested some forty five minutes later in Cannon County, about three miles from the DeKalb County line.
Officer Ward says after the Sheriff’s Department received the 911 call about the stolen van, he met the vehicle approaching him on Highway 56 south near the radio station. Ward, who was going south, says he turned around and began his pursuit of the van, which was heading north. He says ” There was one male subject in the vehicle. I got turned around, turned on my blue lights and sirens, but the vehicle took off, and started passing vehicles on the double lines.”
According to officer Ward, the van turned from Highway 56 onto South College Street. “I radioed in and advised the city police department that we were coming into the city limits on south college street. The van kept passing vehicles on college street and then turned onto Meadow Brook Drive heading toward Short Mountain Highway.”
Officer Ward says when the van came to the end of Meadow Brook Drive, it turned south onto the Short Mountain Highway and struck a southbound 2003 Volkswagon, driven by 62 year old Dr. Arturo Ruanto of Cookeville. Ward says his patrol car also struck the Volkswagon. “I locked down on my brakes but couldn’t get stopped and the passenger side of my car hit the other car in the drivers side. The impact spun me out. My car did a 360. I radioed dispatch to advise the sheriff and the THP of the accident and told them that I was still in pursuit of the van.” Ward says he wasn’t hurt in the mishap but Dr. Ruanto and his wife Basilisa Ruanto went by private vehicle to the Cookeville hospital for treatment.
Smithville Police Officer Chris Russell joined Deputy Ward in the pursuit as it continued south on the Short Mountain Highway. The van later turned off onto another road, apparently trying to allude the officers, and while Officer Russell continued traveling south on Highway 146, Officer Ward kept following the van until it eventually came back out on the Short Mountain Highway heading toward the Cannon County line.
The van, which was in between the county and city patrol cars after it got back on the highway, rear-ended the city cruiser as the officers tried to force it off the road. Ward says ” We tried to sandwich him in to get him off the road but oncoming traffic made it difficult.” Officer Russell was apparently uninjured in the collision.
Ward says the van continued some three miles into Cannon County and then left the road, tore through a fence, and went into a cow pasture. After coming to a stream, he says the driver abandoned the van and tried to flee on foot. He was later found hiding among the woods and a bean field.
Other officers who arrived on the scene to assist deputy Ward and officer Russell in the search for Young were Sergeant Kenneth Whitehead and officers David Sharp and Joe Ray of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department along with officers of both the Cannon and Warren County Sheriff’s Departments.
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