Truck driver accused of intentionally killing Utah officer had been holding a woman against her will

A truck driver accused of deliberately killing a police officer during a traffic stop on a Utah highway held a woman against her will in the cab of his truck, new court documents show.

Michael Aaron Jayne, 42, is accused of driving his vehicle into Santaquin Police Sgt. Bill Hooser, who died at the scene on May 5, while the officer was helping a woman who had escaped from the sleeping area of ​​Jayne’s semitrailer. Friends, family, fellow officers and state officials honored the fallen officer at a public funeral Monday.

Jayne, of Garrett, Indiana, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of aggravated murder targeting a law enforcement officer, kidnapping, burglary, auto theft and failure to respond to officers’ signal to stop, according to a police affidavit. He was already on federal probation and is being held in the Utah County Jail without bail. As of Monday, no formal charges had been filed against him in Utah.

Hooser and Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Dustin Griffiths stopped the semitrailer around 6:30 a.m. in Santaquin, 65 miles south of Salt Lake City, after an anonymous 911 caller reported a person standing on the back of the vehicle. was traveling north on Interstate 15. Who was driving the back of the semi-trailer remains under investigation, police said.

While Jayne was distracted talking to Griffiths, a woman fled from the passenger side and ran behind the truck toward Hooser, pleading for help.

She later told police that she had voluntarily driven with Jayne until they got into an argument at a truck stop in Beaver, Utah. Jayne initially drove away without her, but returned several times. When she refused to get back in the truck, Jayne threatened her with a knife and bear spray until she agreed, the affidavit said.

When Griffiths grabbed Jayne’s door handle, the truck driver locked the door and drove away, making a sharp u-turn as officers ran to their own vehicles. He accelerated toward Hooser, black smoke pouring from his exhaust stack, and rammed the officer into a patrol car, court documents state.

Jayne then shot his truck towards Griffiths and the woman, but they jumped out of the way to escape.

Jayne, whose criminal history dates back more than two decades, left on foot to a Maverik gas station, where he found a truck with the doors unlocked and the keys inside. Police say he stole the truck and later a 1976 Ford F250, which he drove to a vacant home in Mount Pleasant.

He entered the house through the garage and stole boots and the keys to a Ford F150 that he later crashed when police performed a maneuver that caused him to lose control of the vehicle near Vernal, about 160 miles east of Santaquin. said. Jayne was taken into custody at the crash site and taken to a hospital where he was treated for a week.

At Hooser’s funeral Monday, his youngest daughter, Courtney, described her father as a hero and said she was heartbroken that he couldn’t walk her down the aisle later this year.

“There has been anger, sadness, grief and confusion,” she said. “I have spent the last few days thinking about what it was like for my father to lie there lifeless and what that man took from us without remorse.”

Utah Governor Spencer Cox called the suspect a “despicable human being” and assured Courtney that so many fathers would honor her father and support her on her wedding day.

Jayne’s court records detail a history of assaults on police officers in multiple states, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, battery and threats of violence against police.

In March 2009, he was charged in Oregon with attempted aggravated murder for trying to strike an Oregon state police officer with his vehicle in Klamath County. He pleaded guilty to attempted assault and being a felon in possession of body armor, and was sentenced to just over three years in prison.

An attorney for Jayne was not listed in court documents Monday.