An 18-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for stealing a car that he drove toward officers while trying to make a getaway in Huntington Beach.
Adrian Ortiz Coates pleaded guilty July 21 to felony charges of car theft, assault on a peace officer with a weapon and evading police while driving recklessly.
Coates was behind the wheel of a 1996 Honda Accord when police tried to stop him about 2:50 a.m. April 26 for a vehicle code violation, but he sped away west on Edinger Avenue, according to Officer Jennifer Marlatt.
A check of the car’s license plate during the chase showed it was stolen, according to Marlatt, who said Coates refused to stop, blowing through two signs and continuing south toward Davenport Drive.
The pursuit continued west on Davenport and then north on Baruna Street to Nalu Circle, where the driver stopped at the end of the cul-de-sac.
As police got out of their patrol cars and were giving commands to Coates and two other men in the stolen car, the defendant punched the gas pedal and drove toward the officers, Marlatt said. The officers, who managed to get out of the way, fired at the car, hitting it several times, but the driver kept going, she said.
An Orange County sheriff’s helicopter crew spotted the stolen Honda near Edgewater Lane and Courtney Drive just after 4 a.m., and subsequently arrested Coates, who was unhurt.
— Wire reports