An assault suspect who led police on a 32-mile chase from Encinitas to Pala, then holed up in his truck for five hours, was sentenced Monday to three years in state prison.
Oscar Cedillo, 35, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to felony evading and assault on a peace officer.
Sheriff’s officials said Cedillo fled in a black Chevrolet Silverado about 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2016, when a deputy contacted him in a neighborhood near Encinitas Ranch Golf Course regarding a report that Cedillo had been loitering suspiciously in the area.
Deputies followed Cedillo as he fled to the east and north, determining in the process that he was the subject of an arrest warrant stemming from an assault on a peace officer a month earlier in which he dragged a deputy, who had stopped him on suspicion of DUI, 15 feet with his car.
The California Highway Patrol took over the pursuit on northbound Interstate 15 near Gopher Canyon Road, after which Cedillo exited the freeway and continued through Pala, Pauma and Valley Center.
In the area of Cole Grade and Valley Center roads and again on Pala Mission Road, Cedillo drove over tire-flattening spike strips officers had laid in his path. A short time later, the defendant’s truck crashed to a halt into a roadside planter at Pala Temecula Road and Pala Mission Circle.
Officers took up positions around the truck with guns drawn and ordered Cedillo to get out. He refused and doused himself with fuel from a gas can as he sat behind the wheel of his disabled truck, officers said.
The stalemate continued until a SWAT team shot tear gas into the truck, pulled Cedillo out and arrested him.
— City News Service