"Bait car" suspect was already facing sentence before I-405 chase

The suspect in a Bellevue "bait car" theft was to begin a sentence in April for a recent conviction -- possession of a stolen car.

The suspect was captured after a motorcycle officer fired at the bait car the suspect was driving as the car headed toward officers near I-405 Wednesday afternoon, a Bellevue police spokesman said. The incident tied up traffic along the busy interstate for hours.

The King County Prosecutors Office identified the man taken into custody as Jason Scott Collins, 27, of Kent.

Last Friday, Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez had sentenced Collins to serve two months of home detention with electronic monitoring for possession of a stolen car.

Collins appeared at a bail hearing related to the bait-car theft at the King County Jail on Thursday afternoon. King County District Court Judge Eileen Kato set bail at $100,000 and rejected defense arguments that Collins was not a flight risk.

Collins, who had a bandage around his head, apparently from injuries suffered in the capture Wednesday, occasionally laid his head on a table as Kato pronounced her rulings.

A woman who identified herself as his wife, and who said their 15-month-old baby was in the courtroom, also said Collins was not a flight risk, but the judge disagreed.

Collins was arrested after Bellevue police responded to a report of a decoy car being stolen at Bellevue Community College on Wednesday afternoon.

A tracking company notified police the red Honda had been taken, and officers then followed it south along I-405 to the Newcastle area, where it turned off the freeway onto a dead-end street.

The Honda made a U-turn there and came back at the motorcycle officers, police reported, forcing one of them to leap from his motorcycle to avoid being hit.

Another officer fired at the car and the tracking company then shut off the engine, with the Honda coming to a stop along an on-ramp to I-405, where the suspect was captured.

An accomplice in the theft later was arrested in Kent on Wednesday night, Bellevue police reported, although that person has not been identified.

"Bait cars" are equipped with remote tracking devices, cameras and other equipment allowing crooks to be captured, including equipment that allows the car to be disabled via remote.

Such disabling action usually isn't taken until officers have arrived at the vehicle's location, however, to avoid giving the thief time to escape.

Collins' court appearance last Friday stemmed from his 2005 arrest for auto theft, according to court records, when he was stopped while driving a 1994 Chevrolet Caprice on Military Road South in Kent.

Police found that the car had been stolen in Federal Way. Collins pleaded guilty Feb. 16 to possessing stolen property.

The sentence was imposed following calculations made under state sentencing guidelines in which factors such as previous criminal acts are used to determine a possible sentence.

Kato ordered that Collins next appear in court at 2:30 p.m. Monday, allowing the prosecutor's office until then to formally file charges.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com