Fugitive jumped in car and tried to force mom, kids to help him run


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FARR WEST, Weber County — A man who police say fled from officers and attempted to force a woman driving with her children to be a getaway driver has been charged with kidnapping.

Police received a call of two vehicles that possibly contained drunk teenagers at a Maverik convenience store, 1874 W. 2700 North, at 11:44 p.m. Sunday. A Pleasant View officer and a Weber County sheriff's deputy responded and found a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle at a McDonald's across the street, according to charging documents.

The deputy made contact with two men and could smell alcohol on one or both of them. One man said he was the driver and admitted he'd had a few beers, the charges state. The other man, Christopher Thomas Mottes, 26, of Roy, denied drinking any alcohol.

The deputy ran a background check and found that Mottes had a warrant for parole violation in Arizona, a felony warrant for aggravated assault out of Ogden and a misdemeanor warrant out of North Ogden for an alcohol violation, according to a police affidavit filed in 2nd District Court.

After getting out of his car, the deputy told Mottes to put his hands behind his back. Mottes allegedly ran off, but police spotted him in a ditch between the I-15 north off-ramp and 1850 West. The deputy took out his gun and ordered Mottes to get on the ground. Mottes turned from the deputy, put his hands in front of his body and appeared to be hunched "as if trying to retrieve a weapon," the affidavit states.


Mottes ran to the passenger door and got in the car before it came to a stop. The woman told police that Mottes swore at her and told her to drive off. The woman, who told police she was afraid for her life and the lives of her children, said she saw officers in pursuit and told Mottes, "No."

Mottes was looking at the deputy over his left shoulder as the officer tried to approach. The deputy then ran into a barbed wire fence that he did not see in the dark and Mottes sprinted west onto the I-15 north off-ramp. Police said he was almost hit by a car when he ran into traffic and headed west across four lanes of the freeway before stopping at a dividing median. He crossed the median and continued onto southbound lanes.

At the same time, a woman was driving south in a vehicle with her two children when she saw police lights and thought there had been a crash. Mottes was waving his arms and running toward her so she slowed down, mistaking him to be a crash victim in need of help, the court documents state.

Mottes ran to the passenger door and got in the car before it came to a stop. The woman told police that Mottes swore at her and told her to drive off. The woman, who told police she was afraid for her life and the lives of her children, said she saw officers in pursuit and told Mottes, "No."

Mottes got out of the car, was tackled by an officer and was not complying with the officer's instructions and attempts to put his hands behind his back, according to the charges. Officers then deployed a Taser on Mottes and took him into custody.

Mottes was charged with three counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony; failure to respond to an officer's signal to stop, a third-degree felony; failing to stop at the command of an officer, a class A misdemeanor; and interfering with an arresting officer, a class B misdemeanor.

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Whitney Evans

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