A habitual offender who was out on parole after being sentenced to prison last year for ramming a Garland County sheriff's patrol unit was arrested Friday after fleeing from sheriff's investigators who were trying to serve multiple warrants on him.
Dillon Ray Ellis, 24, was taken into custody around 1 p.m. after a brief manhunt and faces felony counts of residential burglary, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, theft by receiving, felony fleeing, first-degree criminal mischief and terroristic threatening, each punishable by up to six years, and misdemeanor counts of fleeing on foot, second-degree criminal mischief and first-degree assault.
He remained in custody Friday on a zero bond parole hold and will likely be arraigned Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to a sheriff's news release, on Friday, investigators received information about the location of Ellis, who was wanted on multiple felony and misdemeanor warrants and attempted to serve him at 129 Christian Way shortly after noon.
Ellis fled the home on foot in an attempt to evade arrest but was apprehended in the 200 block of Ruella Way and placed into custody around 1 p.m. on the various warrants. The release notes Ellis had recently fled on Aug. 2 from deputies in a stolen vehicle in addition to the other charges.
Ellis was previously convicted on July 1, 2019, on felony counts of possession of a firearm by certain persons, possession of a defaced firearm, criminal use of a prohibited weapon and theft by receiving and was sentenced to six years on each count, to run concurrently, while two additional felony counts of aggravated assault were withdrawn.
He was classified as a habitual offender at his sentencing because he was convicted Jan. 8, 2018, in Pike County of felony counts of fleeing, theft of property and theft by receiving and sentenced to four years in prison with two years suspended and was on parole at the time of his arrest.
According to the affidavit on the 2019 conviction, on Nov. 23, 2018, a local man reported a 2003 Mitsubishi Gallant stolen from Indian Springs Road. On Nov. 27, shortly before 12:30 a.m., sheriff's Deputy Charles Delahunt located the vehicle sitting at a car wash in the 3900 block of Highway 7 north and he and other deputies attempted to block the vehicle in.
The Gallant backed up quickly, striking Delahunt's car causing the deputy, who was trying to exit his vehicle, to be thrown back into his car and injured. Then the driver of the Gallant, identified as Ellis, drove directly toward another deputy, Jeremy Simpson, who was standing in front of his patrol vehicle.
Simpson fired two rounds from his service weapon at the vehicle, penetrating the windshield and striking Ellis in the left wrist. Ellis was then removed from the vehicle, treated at a local hospital, and taken into custody.
In the vehicle, deputies located a loaded 12-gauge pump shotgun with a sawed-off barrel and noted the serial number had also been altered. A computer check confirmed Ellis was a convicted felon prohibited from possessing a firearm.