John Sheehy ran seven stop signs and a red light, hit a cat and nearly crashed head-on into other drivers while he led troopers on a 26-mile chase last week that reached speeds of 100 mph, according to the Vermont State Police.
And four days after troopers gave up that pursuit, state police say, the 27-year-old Lyndonville man threatened a woman and her son with a knife, threw a rock at a 4-year-old girl, punched a man in the head and led authorities on a foot chase.
Sheehy was arrested Tuesday night and faces 11 charges stemming from the two incidents, court records show.
The Caledonia County State’s Attorney Office charged Sheehy on Wednesday with 11 counts: reckless or gross negligence while operating a vehicle, careless or reckless vehicle operation with a previous such offense, eluding police, speeding, reckless endangerment, first-degree aggravated domestic assault with a weapon, aggravated domestic assault with a prior conviction for such, two counts of simple assault, unlawful mischief and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The records reveal many more details about the high-speed chase than previously released by state police and lay out a bizarre trail of alleged crimes.
The woman Sheehy is accused of threatening to kill was also his unwilling passenger during the pursuit, troopers said. VTDigger is withholding her name because she is an alleged domestic abuse victim.
At about 10:35 p.m. Friday, Trooper Sean Pecuch attempted to stop a black Chevy Impala on Pinehurst Street in Lyndonville because a headlight was out, according to an affidavit filed in court.
But the car turned onto Rod Key Street, a horseshoe-shaped loop, and blew back out onto Pinehurst Street without stopping at a stop sign, the affidavit from Pecuch says.
The Impala sped up to 55 mph in a posted 25-mph zone, according to the affidavit, and drove through the village of Lyndonville and another stop sign, accelerating to 60 mph in a 30-mph zone.
The car headed through the town of Lyndon until it reached South Wheelock Road, where it continued into the town of Wheelock, the affidavit says, crossing the center line repeatedly and almost hitting oncoming cars.
The car turned onto state Route 122 and hit a cat that had run into the road, before heading to Sutton and then turning west onto Burke Road, the affidavit says. There, the driver sped up to about 100 mph, troopers said.
The Impala turned onto U.S. Route 5 in West Burke and stopped for a second; the woman got out and was detained by troopers.
Troopers followed the vehicle south on Route 5, reaching speeds around 100 mph, but ended their pursuit when they reached Lyndonville again, according to the affidavit. Troopers said there were too many vehicles and pedestrians from the Caledonia County Fair that night to continue safely.
The passenger told troopers that Sheehy was the driver and that she had tried to get him to let her out of the car during the chase, according to the affidavit. She told troopers that Sheehy fled because he had an active arrest warrant, which troopers confirmed, the affidavit says.
The next day, a man and another woman both identified Sheehy as the driver to troopers, according to the affidavit.
The woman showed troopers screenshots of Facebook messages Sheehy had sent her about the chase, the affidavit says, which included details not released to the public, such as the hit cat.
On Tuesday at about 7:30 p.m., several troopers and a Lyndonville police officer responded to a call that Sheehy was threatening the woman who had been his passenger during the Friday chase and her 19-year-old son at a house in Burke, according to a second state police affidavit.
When the troopers arrived outside the home, they heard loud bangs and glass breaking, and then a white Impala sped away from the home, the affidavit says. The woman was driving, fleeing from Sheehy, the affidavit says.
Troopers said they spoke to the woman’s son, who said Sheehy had been drinking all day and was wielding a knife and garden shears.
A dispatcher then notified troopers of a 911 call reporting a distraught, shirtless man talking about a broken window and his girlfriend, according to the affidavit. A second 911 call came in describing something similar, troopers said.
Troopers eventually found the man, identified as Sheehy, and arrested him after a foot chase, the affidavit says. Sheehy told a trooper that the woman had assaulted him with a hammer, the affidavit says.
A preliminary breath test showed he had a breath-alcohol content of 0.106%, according to the affidavit. In Vermont, .08% is the legal threshold for impaired driving.
In interviews with troopers, the woman and her son said Sheehy threatened to kill them because he believed she had called police.
He threw a butcher block of knives at them, the affidavit says, and then grabbed a 6-inch serrated knife and told the two they were going to die.
The woman told troopers that Sheehy then picked up a pair of garden shears and smashed the side windows of her Impala and her son’s vehicle too, the affidavit says.
Neighbors told troopers that shortly before authorities arrived, Sheehy had yelled and swore at a 4-year-old girl because she was “howling” at the moon while sitting on a second-floor porch.
Then, they said, Sheehy threw a large rock toward the girl, nailing the wall a few inches below her, according to the affidavit.
When a man chased after Sheehy in response, Sheehy punched him in the head, troopers said.
Sheehy was being held on $80,000 bail Thursday, according to state Department of Corrections records.
