Officers arrest 3 after SUV flips during police chase

Medford, Ore. — Two people with outstanding drug warrants and a third who had recently been released from jail on drug and eluding charges face new charges after the SUV they were driving flipped into a field along Hanley Road during an alleged attempt to flee police Friday afternoon.

The Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement task force detained Emmanuel Snowden Jr., 37, Yoseline Thania Villaneda, 21, and Raymond Lee Henderson III, 32, after the early 2000s model Acura MDX they were driving flipped over near the Central Point Little League fields while headed north on Hanley Road just after 1 p.m., according to Medford police Lt. Justin Ivens.

Speed was a factor in the crash, according to Ivens. MADGE detectives who had been investigating the three suspects attempted a traffic stop on Highway 238 near Ross Lane when the vehicle sped off, according to Ivens. Detectives didn’t engage in the pursuit.

“These guys were on MADGE’s radar,” Ivens said.

No injuries were reported in the crash, according to Ivens, though police transported the three suspects to a nearby hospital for a checkup before they were processed at the Jackson County Jail.

As of Friday evening, Snowden, the Acura’s alleged driver, was booked in the jail on new felony charges of attempting to elude police in a vehicle and conspiring to deliver heroin, misdemeanor counts of reckless endangering, reckless driving and tampering with evidence. He was held without bail Friday for violating his parole on a prior racketeering conviction, jail records show. The parole violation stems from a May 2013 MADGE drug bust in Medford, in which dealer quantities of drugs and weapons were seized, according to archives and Jackson County Circuit Court records.

Villaneda faces a new felony charge of conspiring to deliver heroin and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with evidence, and on warrants for violating her probation on prior convictions for hindering prosecution, possessing a stolen vehicle, and possessing heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. She was held on $57,500 bail.

As of 8:20 p.m. Friday, Henderson had not yet been booked in the jail.

Henderson, however, was a co-defendant in Snowden’s 2013 case, according to court records. Henderson was ultimately convicted of a single misdemeanor count of resisting arrest in that case, though he currently has multiple pending felony cases.

Henderson had been out of jail only since Tuesday, according to court records. He’d been held in jail since July 21 because of his alleged involvement in a previous elude that totaled a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy’s patrol vehicle and closed northbound Interstate 5 between the two Ashland exits. Police had stopped Henderson driving a 2006 BMW sedan on the freeway by pushing the car into a guard rail, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

More than 50 grams of a substance believed to be heroin was thrown from the BMW, the affidavit said.