A rural Mountain Home man who has been arrested in connection with the theft of vehicles from Arkansas and Missouri, five trailers in Missouri as well as with stealing items from the vehicles he took appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Tuesday.
Forty-two-year-old Jeremiah Dean Partee pled guilty to the charges against him in four open criminal cases and was sentenced to eight years in the Arkansas Department of Correction.
LONG LIST OF CHARGES, SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME
In Baxter County, Partee picked up a significant number of felony charges within a very short span of time.
Cases were opened against him stemming from multiple incidents that occurred in January and February last year.
APPREHENDED SOAKING IN HOT TUB
Winter weather caused a slight twist in the story of one set of Partee’s charges.
He is reported to have abandoned a stolen vehicle in Howell County Missouri in frigid weather and walked to a nearby residence.
There, lawmen found him in soaking in a hot tub. Partee was reported to have been suffering from frostbite.
He was taken to a hospital, but walked away before he could be treated.
HIGH SPEED CHASES
In one instance, Partee led police on a high-speed chase on icy roads while driving a Ford Taurus reported stolen in Ozark County Missouri before being taken into custody Feb. 17.
During the chase, Partee ran a red light and struck another vehicle at the intersection of Highway 5 North and Hospital Drive. A patrol car belonging to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office was damaged.
Speeds were reported to have reached 80-miles-per-hour on the slick roads.
Partee finally wrecked the reportedly stolen Ford on First Street near Highway 62B.
He fled on foot to an apartment complex at 145 South Main where he tried several doors in an attempt to find a hiding place. He did find a door open and went into one of the apartments where officers located him and put him in handcuffs.
The resident was reported not to have been at home when Partee came calling.
At the time, Partee was a parolee from the state of Missouri and was being supervised by the Arkansas Community Corrections (ACC) office in Mountain Home under provisions of the Interstate Compact.
Partee is suspected of stealing vehicles and trailers in several locations, including Howell and Ozark Counties in Missouri.
In one case he is alleged to have used a stolen truck to steal a car hauler trailer in West Plains in mid-February.
Partee was said to have provided information to investigators that led to the recovery of most of the stolen property.
MADE PURCHASES WITH STOLEN CHECK
Partee was also alleged to have taken items from the various vehicles. He was reported to have found a checkbook in one stolen truck, went to Lowe’s in Mountain Home and purchased more than $400 in merchandise with one of the checks.
He took his purchases to a local Pawn Shop and sold the new items within minutes of leaving Lowe’s. He was required to provide a receipt for the purchase since the items were still in the original packaging.
Since he had paid with the check, he was able to provide a receipt.
Partee was also arrested and jailed in Baxter County in late January last year when the ACC Fugitive Task Force went to his residence along County Road 27.
He had been listed as an absconder. Officers found a number of items of paraphernalia used to ingest drugs.
The items, including smoking pipes and used syringes, were reported to have been found in every room of the home, as well as outside on the driveway.
In Baxter County, Partee was charged with multiple counts of theft of property, residential burglary, theft by receiving, fleeing, forgery and possession of drug paraphernalia.
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