Father jailed for chase with his son in car

The defendant, Randy Ray Murphy, 28, was ordered by Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to serve 165 days of a five-year sentence and pay $350 plus costs for reckless endangerment and evading arrest. He will be on supervised probation for the next five years after he is released from jail.

Sheriff’s investigator Jim Hartman believes Murphy panicked thinking he was going to be arrested when he saw him pull into the parking lot at Jewel’s Market on Smithville Highway. Murphy was wanted for violation of probation and believed Hartman would recognize him.

Not realizing Murphy had his 6-year-old son sitting unrestrained in the back seat of the car, Hartman, in his detective’s unit, gave chase as the Murphy vehicle sped onto Green Hill Road. The chase continued at high speeds with the fleeing suspect taking turns at breakneck speeds until he reached his parents’ trailer on Green Hill where he pulled into the driveway, jumped out of the car and fled into the woods.

Hartman, who just caught a glimpse of the driver fleeing on foot, said he found a front-seat passenger who was intoxicated and the 6-year-old boy, still sitting without a child seat or seatbelt in the back seat.

‘I asked the little boy who was driving,’ recalled Hartman of the chase. ‘The child said, ‘My daddy was driving.’

In addition to his own son saying Murphy was the driver, Hartman said in his haste to flee the suspect left behind his wallet which bore all of his identification. Murphy was taken into custody three days later.