Sonoma County Sheriff: Man arrested after search for thief who crashed car

A 26-year-old transient remained Wednesday in the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of leading police a day earlier on a high-speed chase in a stolen car and running away after crashing the vehicle, leaving behind an injured passenger.

Christofer Terry Burnett was taken into custody Tuesday after a resident called authorities about 4:45 p.m. and reported a suspicious person walking down Porter Creek Road near where the stolen vehicle had crashed. Deputies spoke with Burnett and “were able to confirm he was the driver of the stolen car,” according to a Sheriff’s Office press release.

In the crashed car, deputies earlier found a backpack with Burnett’s name on legal papers. They also found a wrench fashioned into a “punch type tool used to break windows,” according to the press release.

The car chase had begun about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday when a deputy tried to pull over a black Honda Civic that had run a stop sign on Windsor River Road. A sheriff’s spokesman said the fleeing vehicle reached speeds of about 70 mph before crashing into a tree stump in the 2800 block of Porter Creek Road.

After the crash the driver fled. The injured passenger, a 32-year-old woman, was treated for minor injuries.

The charges against Burnett include evasion, false imprisonment, hit-and-run causing injury and vehicle theft. Bail was set at $65,000.