Missouri: K.C. suspect in fatal crash faces charges in chase

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March 31, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Wed Mar 31, 2010, 10:39 PM CDT

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three weeks before being accused of causing a five-car crash that took the life of a 12-year-old boy, Clayton Dunlap was flying down residential streets in Kansas City in a Chevy Blazer with officers in pursuit, both in cars and a police helicopter.

The Jackson County prosecutor’s office Wednesday charged Dunlap, 30, with resisting arrest, driving while intoxicated and driving while revoked in connection with that March 6 chase, which ended when he got out of his vehicle and unsuccessfully tried to flee officers on foot, police said.

Dunlap was charged Monday with second-degree murder and driving while revoked for a crash Saturday in Kansas City that killed Damian Slayton, who was a passenger in a car that had stopped for a red light when Dunlap’s vehicle hit it.

Prior to the most recent charges, Dunlap had been convicted 16 times of driving while revoked, six times for careless and imprudent driving, three times for leaving the scene of an accident, and once for drunken driving.

Jackson County Prosecutor James Kanatzar said that while Dunlap’s traffic record is shocking, little more could have been done to keep him from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” Kanatzar told The Associated Press. “This case highlights the dangers that go along with that frustration. But I don’t blame anyone. It’s difficult if not impossible to get judges and juries excited about driving while revoked.”

Tight resources also force law enforcement agencies to put a higher priority on violent crimes than traffic offenses, especially when nobody is hurt, he said.

Kanatzar said his office handles thousands of driving-while-revoked cases a year, and he doesn’t have time to concentrate on all of them.

“You have to do what you can with the resources you have,” Kanatzar said. “If I’m given a choice — do we house murderers over someone charged with misdemeanor driving while revoked — anyone would make the logical choice on this.”

According to a probable cause statement from March 6 — when police estimated he was driving 70 to 80 mph down residential streets — Dunlap admitted after the chase that he smoked a couple of marijuana cigarettes laced with PCP the previous day, and had taken painkillers that morning.

He spent five days in jail before being released pending toxicology results from blood samples. On Wednesday, Kanatzar’s office said lab results showed the presence of cannabinoids and phencyclidine, or PCP.

In the crash Saturday, witnesses said Dunlap was driving a Blazer at a high rate of speed in the wrong lanes when he tried to swerve into the right lanes but hit a concrete median and flipped the vehicle. The Blazer struck a car that was stopped at a red light, killing the car’s 12-year-old passenger. Three other cars also were caught in the wreck.

Police said Dunlap was yelling incoherently when he crawled out of his vehicle, and later was combative at a hospital during treatment. An officer reported smelling a chemical odor consistent with PCP when he stood next to Dunlap at the hospital.

Kanatzar said Dunlap’s 16 convictions for driving while revoked were misdemeanors, but the charges filed this week are felonies based on the extreme circumstances surrounding them.

Dunlap was being held in Jackson County Jail on Wednesday, with bond set at $250,000 cash-only on the murder charge and $50,000 cash-only on the new charges. He had not yet hired an attorney.

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Missouri: K.C. suspect in fatal crash faces charges in chase

Eliminating the state income tax and increasing sales tax was debated during a press day on Thursday at the Missouri Capitol. Do you favor that proposal?

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