Man sentenced to 15 years for crime spree

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A 32-year-old man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in four separate cases. The most recent involved a shooting near Vancouver Lake that prompted a manhunt for days.

The Columbian reports Clark County Superior Court Judge Daniel Stahnke on Monday accepted the attorneys’ recommended sentence of 180 months for Brad Lee Reeves of Vancouver.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes and defense attorney James Sowder said the stipulated sentence was reached after significant negotiations, and Reeves would have faced more time behind bars had he opted for a trial.

Sowder said his client should receive more than two years of credit for time served.

Reeves apologized to the victims, stating he “never had a chance growing up.” Depression and drug addiction drove his actions for years, he said.

Reeves was booked April 5, 2018, into the Clark County Jail on an outstanding warrant and on suspicion of assault and attempting to elude police. The next day, he appeared in court to face those allegations and charges of failing to appear for older cases.

On March 29, 2018, Reeves fired five to six shots at a man near Vancouver Lake. The victim was trying to report that he saw a woman exit and then run back to a Kia sedan occupied by Reeves on the secluded road, according to a probable cause affidavit.

In early April 2018, Vancouver police tried to stop Reeves, who was driving a stolen white Ford F-250 pickup, but he fled down Interstate 5. Reeves rammed a pursuing patrol vehicle before the chase was called off near Jantzen Beach in Portland.

The next day, police say Reeves was spotted driving another stolen pickup, a blue Ford F-350. He allegedly sped off and avoided arrest once more. Those three incidents led up to an overnight search April 4 in Vancouver’s Rose Village neighborhood.

Police were dispatched about 8:50 p.m. about a suspicious vehicle, according to a Vancouver Police Department press release. Reeves was inside. As they approached, he ran into the neighborhood. Police and a SWAT team combed the neighborhood for hours before finding Reeves hiding in a yard several blocks away.