Convicted felon who crashed stolen car facing charges

EPHRATA — Charges have been filed against a convicted felon from Ephrata who allegedly crashed a stolen car near Ephrata last week.

Grant County prosecutors charged Jose Macias, 20, of Ephrata, in Grant County Superior Court with second-degree taking a motor vehicle without permission and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

The charges relate to an Aug. 1 incident after the Grant County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a one-vehicle injury collision on Sagebrush Flats Road Northwest. The two subjects involved in the collision, Macias and a teenager, were transported to Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata by ambulance. Macias was later transported to Providence-Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane via ambulance and the teen was airlifted to Confluence Health-Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee for treatment of serious injuries, according to court documents.

Deputies investigated the collision and determined the vehicle, a 2015 Toyota Highlander, came to a rest in a drainage ditch after colliding with a culvert. Deputies reportedly found a 9mm shell casing inside of the vehicle, but did not immediately locate a gun. Deputies later learned the vehicle had been stolen from the 200 block of Admiral Road Northeast. The owner of the vehicle advised there wasn’t a gun inside, but there was a spare key in the vehicle and a wedding ring.

Deputies, along with K-9 Deputy Grizzly, searched the vicinity of the collision scene and recovered six credit cards, which belonged to the owner of the vehicle, in some gravel.

“Grizzly started working the weeds and sagebrush in the area. He located a set of keys that had four different keys on the key ring,” wrote a deputy. “I grabbed the keys and Grizzly continued to work the area. He found another set of keys. This key ring had 3 keys on the rings and they appeared to be for storage boxes.”

Grizzly went on to find a black semi-automatic handgun, which was consistent with the spent shell casing found in the Toyota, about 120-yards east of the collision scene. The day after the collision MACC Dispatch received a call from a man who lives in the 5100 block of Sagebrush Flats Road Northwest. The suspicious male allegedly told the caller he was involved in the collision the day before and he was looking for his phone and wedding ring. Deputies responded and located the suspicious male, later determined to be Macias, who claimed he was looking for his property.

“It should be noted there had not been any press releases done for the collision the day before. I asked him what property he was looking for and he said a phone and wedding ring. I asked him if it was near the collision scene and he said he wasn't sure,” wrote a deputy. “He started saying he ‘honestly doesn't remember anything’ about how he got there or got from Moses Lake. He claimed there were four people in the vehicle at the time of collision.”

Macias later admitted the teen was in the vehicle, but he claimed they were in the backseat. Court records indicate that evidence shows there was only two occupants in the vehicle, neither of whom were wearing a seatbelt. Macias also reportedly complained of his left leg hurting on the outside, which “would be consistent with him being the driver and his left leg hitting the emergency brake pedal.”

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.