Boone County man charged following chase with law enforcement
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Boone County man has been charged with multiple felonies following a chase with law enforcement on Monday.
Mark Helmich, 36, was charged with illegal gun possession, resisting arrest by fleeing and driving while revoked. He is being held in the Boone County Jail on a $50,000 bond. Helmich’s address is listed as Columbia in court records, but is listed as being from Hartsburg in jail records. A court date has not been set.
A Boone County Sheriff’s deputy saw a 2018 Toyota Camry without a front license plate heading north on Route VV at 3:25 p.m. A detective had told the deputy he was behind the vehicle a few minutes earlier and that it pulled into a residence in what was described as “an effort to avoid him,” according to the probable cause statement.
The deputy tried to initiate a traffic stop, but Helmich didn’t stop and a chase ensued, according to the probable cause statement. The vehicle went south on Highway 63 and then east on Peabody Road at 96 miles per hour.
The chase went to Finger Lakes State Park and began to slow down, according to the statement. Dust was created from the travel on a gravel road and the deputy saw a blue backpack in the roadway, which was later retrieved by deputies. The backpack contained a handgun with a bullet in the chamber.
The chase then went north on Highway 63 and reached 120 mph. The vehicle drove through the grassy median to get into the southbound lanes, but was still heading north, but it eventually drove back into the northbound lanes, the statement says.
The Toyota had heavy damage from driving across the median twice, the statement says, and eventually started going east on Highway 22, hit a road sign and stopped. Helmich tried to run away and hide in a bean field, but he was found by a K-9 about 90 yards away from the vehicle.
Helmich is currently on supervised probation. He pleaded guilty to stealing $750 or more on March 22, 2022, and was sentenced to five years of supervised probation with a suspended sentence of five years in the Department of Corrections.
