The District Court gave a Donley County woman a 20-year sentence this week after she led law enforcement on a high-speed chase through three counties August 31.
Sonye Shields appeared before Judge Stuart Messer Tuesday morning, September 15, in a contested adjudication hearing with District Attorney Luke Inman representing the state. Six witnesses testified for the state, and two witnesses testified for the defendant.
Shields was sentenced to 20 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for violating the probation she started June 1 for a second degree charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance.
That offense was committed on February 20, 2015. Shields was 53 at the time of her arrest.
Shields has since been in trouble with the law and had two outstanding warrants on August 31 when Donley County Deputy Vincent Morasco saw her at Allsup’s convenience store in Clarendon with her husband and a U-Haul pickup hooked to a utility trailer loaded with furniture, according to Sheriff Butch Blackburn.
Morasco identified himself and informed Shields that he needed to confirm the warrant for her. She then got into the passenger side of the pick-up and locked the door. The deputy confronted her and tried to get her to exit the vehicle, but Shields slid over to the driver’s side and sped off. As she took off, the deputy shot the right front tire of the vehicle, the sheriff said.
Shields drove through some side streets before getting onto US 287 and then going north on State Hwy. 70 at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The sheriff said her speed and erratic driving was causing the trailer’s load to be lost as she drove.
With the deputy still in pursuit, she headed west on Interstate 40 where she lost a desk off the trailer, causing the deputy to have to stop for safety reasons. As the deputy cleared the roadway, Sheriff Blackburn picked up the chase and caught up with Shields at mile marker 114 at the edge of Groom.
Shields pulled over and was arrested on charges of Evading and booked into the Carson County Jail. She was transferred to the Donley County Jail the next day and arraigned by Justice of the Peace Denise Bertrand.
Blackburn said Shields was wanted on a warrant for burglary out of Amarillo and on a local warrant for theft. She was also already out on bond on a motion to adjudicate her probation, the sheriff said.
The district attorney’s office said Tuesday afternoon that this week’s sentencing only related to Shields’ violation of probation and that other charges are still pending against her.
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