YUMA, Ariz. -- The woman arrested here late last month after a high-speed chase on Interstate 8 was driving a car owned by a man whose death is being investigated as a murder.
According to Levi Gunderson of the Yuma County Attorney's Office, the car 27-year-old Maricela Sanchez of Phoenix was driving is registered to 56-year-old Bruce Gaudet. His body was found Jan. 26 by firefighters who responded to a fire at his central Phoenix apartment.
Sanchez is being held in the Yuma County jail on charges of theft of a vehicle, unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement and excessive speed.
Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into Gaudet's murder but would not say whether Sanchez was a suspect.
Gaudet, a sales representative for a cigar company, is believed to have been shot multiple times and then his home was set on fire.
"We are not commenting at this time because it is an ongoing investigation," Thompson said.
Thompson also would not comment on Sanchez's relation to Gaudet, although it has been reported in several news agencies that she may have been his girlfriend.
On Jan. 26 at about 11:30 a.m., an officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety conducted a traffic stop on Sanchez at milepost 45 for criminal speeding. Under Arizona law, criminal speeding is considered 20 mph or more above the posted speed limit.
During that traffic stop, Sanchez, who was sitting on her seat belt, presented the DPS officer with a credit card instead of her driver's license and refused several orders to get out of her vehicle.
Unable to get Sanchez to comply, the officer pulled out his stun gun and issued her a final warning, at which point she drove off at a high rate of speed. The officer did fire his stun gun into Sanchez's vehicle when she started to pull away, but she was not hit.
The chase continued westbound on I-8 for another 33 miles before DPS officers placed spike strips across the highway at milepost 12, near the Foothills exit. Deputies from the Yuma County Sheriff's Office also assisted in the pursuit.
The chase came to an end when Sanchez was unable to avoid the spikes and ran over them, deflating her tires. At that point, troopers and deputies conducted a felony stop and took her into custody.
Earlier that morning, at around 9:30 a.m., Phoenix police were called to the scene of the apartment fire after firefighters discovered Gaudet's body.
During her initial appearance the following day in Wellton Justice Court before Justice of the Peace Russ Jones, Sanchez admitted that the vehicle she was driving during the high-speed chase did not belong to her.
Copyright 2012 - The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
