Stolen car rams Hailey home
Driver arrested for grand theft and DUI
By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer
A stolen pickup truck careened into the front of a Hailey home early Saturday morning following a short but frenzied police chase.
David Basil Mercer, 23, of Hailey, who allegedly stole a car from the driveway of a home on Eureka Drive, didn?t get very far before being spotted by Hailey police.
As a dispatch bulletin was going out about a 2:15 a.m. 911 call from Craig Werley about someone driving away with his truck, Hailey patrol officer Jeff Laybourne saw the white 2003 Ford F-250 pickup truck coming toward him in the 800 block of East Ridge Drive. In fact, Laybourne said in his police report that the driver, Mercer, nearly hit him head-on as he sped down the street. Laybourne said he had switched on his emergency lights but then had to maneuver to avoid the head-on collision.
Laybourne turned and pursued Mercer east on Buckskin Drive in the Deerfield subdivision, until Mercer jumped from the moving vehicle at the intersection with Buckhorn Drive at the mouth of Quigley Canyon.
The vehicle coasted through a yard at the top of the T-intersection where Buckskin Drive meets Buckhorn Drive and crashed into the front porch of a home belonging to Christine Gould and Tyler Davis-Jeffers.
?I suddenly awoke to a loud crash and the house shaking,? Gould told police. ?My husband and I jumped out of bed, looked out our window, and saw a truck on our front porch.?
Only minutes before Werley looked out his bedroom window after his wife, Jodi Hernandez, heard someone starting his truck.
?We sleep with our window open,? he said. ?I called 911 as I watched my truck drive away.?
As the abandoned truck crashed into the house, Laybourne collared Mercer and read him his Miranda rights. Laybourne said he detected alcohol on Mercer?s breath and said that Mercer said he had been at a bar.
Mercer was transported to St. Luke?s Wood River Medical Center, where he was treated and released for his injuries.
McDonald was arraigned on felony charges of eluding police, grand theft, aggravated assault for allegedly attempting to drive into Laybourne?s patrol car, and malicious injury to property for damaging the Buckhorn Drive house and the Ford truck. Mercer has a prior DUI conviction in Oregon and is being charged with a second DUI offence, a misdemeanor, said Blaine County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Warren Christiansen.
Mercer is currently being at the Blaine County jail on $25,000 bond.
Estimated damage to the Buckhorn Drive house is $40,000, damage to the Ford pickup is estimated at $15,000.
