A paroled sex offender who led authorities on a nearly four-hour pursuit in a motorhome from Los Angeles to Bakersfield is expected to be arraigned Monday on charges of kidnapping, child abuse, injuring a spouse and other related counts.
Stephen Merle Houk, a 46-year-old registered sex offender from Oregon, got into a fight with his wife in the family’s RV while it was parked and allegedly pointed a loaded gun at his wife and threatened to kill her, according to authorities.
Houk drove off with his 3-year-old and 11-month-old children in the motorhome and his wife found a passerby who called for help, leading sheriff’s deputies to give chase last Tuesday, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Houk is charged with two counts each of kidnapping, child abuse, injuring a spouse and child detention and one count each of assault with a firearm, criminal threats, fleeing police, possession of a firearm by a felon, fugitive from justice and transient’s violation of registration, a misdemeanor.
After abandoning the RV near Bakersfield and initially eluding authorities, Houk was arrested Thursday afternoon in a rail yard in Barstow. Authorities said he had shaved his beard in an attempt to change his appearance, and was hoping to slip out of state on a train.
“He was hiding inside a compartment of an empty rail car, where detectives from the Fugitive Task Force took him into custody without incident,” said Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
According to sheriff’s officials and prosecutors, Houk initially pointed a gun a his wife and threatened to kill her inside the motorhome, which was parked in Malibu. With his wife still inside the vehicle, Houk then drove to Santa Clarita.
Sheriff’s Lt. Eddie Hernandez said Wednesday that Houk and his wife continued arguing. He said Houk pointed a gun his wife and told her to get out of the vehicle at a Best Buy store in the area of Bouquet Canyon and Newhall Ranch roads, and also threatened to harm their 3-year-old child.
“At that time we knew the suspect was armed. We knew he had his 3-year-old in the vehicle, and his 11-month-old daughter,” Hernandez said.
The chase ended about 6 p.m. Tuesday in an orchard at Merced Avenue and Zerker Road in Bakersfield. California Highway Patrol, Kern County Sheriff’s Department and Bakersfield Police Department personnel conducted an “extensive” search of the orchard before giving up about 11 p.m. Tuesday
“The children kidnapped by suspect Stephen Houk were located unharmed inside the pursuit vehicle shortly after the pursuit came to an end,” according to the sheriff’s department. “Both children have since been reunited with their mother.”
A dog that was seen in video footage during the pursuit was also located safe inside the recreational vehicle.
The Sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau began the pursuit about 2:30 p.m. May 1 in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, with the California Highway Patrol taking over the chase when the motorhome entered the northbound Golden State (5) Freeway, through the Newhall Pass and into Santa Clarita and north of Castaic.
The suspect then headed on state Route 99 into Kern County and traveled on surface streets in Bakersfield.
In Bakersfield, Houk repeatedly exited and re-entered the freeway and at times drove through the city and a busy Walmart parking lot, all with his two young children in the vehicle, authorities said.
Eventually Houk turned on a dirt road to the orchard, where the motor home and police vehicles kicked up blinding dust, said CHP Officer Robert Rodriguez.
When the motorhome stopped with its front end under a thick canopy of trees, officers pulled back for safety, Rodriguez said. Police eventually surrounded the motorhome with armored vehicles and patrol cars, guns drawn, waiting for Houk to emerge. Instead, his 3-year-old son walked out about 45 minutes later.
Police then found the baby inside but Houk was nowhere in sight.
Prosecutors plan to recommend bail be set at $1 million.