photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A maroon Jeep is loaded onto a tow truck at East 11th Street and Haskell Avenue after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash Wednesday, April 12, 2023.

Updated at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 13

A high-speed chase ended in a crash Wednesday night in East Lawrence, and two suspects with outstanding warrants were taken into custody.

The chase started about 7:50 p.m. on East 15th Street near Craig Court when a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy recognized the driver of a maroon Jeep as someone with outstanding warrants, according to George Diepenbrock, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. The driver immediately began to evade the deputy.

The pursuit was discontinued east of Lawrence, but the vehicle was spotted in the area a short time later in the 1700 block of North 1500 Road, where the suspect evaded stop spikes and continued north on East 1625 Road, Diepenbrock said. During the pursuit, deputies observed the suspect driving recklessly at a high speed and nearly causing a head-on collision with a Lawrence Police Department officer.

At 8 p.m., the suspect in the Jeep was driving too fast for the curve at East 11th Street and Haskell Avenue, Diepenbrock said, and the vehicle left the road, striking an electrical box, a guy-wire and fire hydrant, causing the vehicle to flip once onto its roof.

The driver, a 29-year-old man, and his passenger, a 29-year-old woman, were checked for injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening and were taken to LMH Health at their requests, then into custody at the Douglas County Jail.

The driver had eight outstanding warrants and the passenger had four, Diepenbrock said.

photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Department of Corrections

Brandon Michael Helm is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

The driver, Brandon Michael Helm, 29, of Lawrence, has pending felony charges in Douglas County for two counts of fleeing and eluding in 2021, one count of obstruction and one count of drug possession, according to court records. He is on probation for felony convictions in 2019 for drug distribution and attempted tampering with an electronic monitoring device, with an underlying prison sentence of 44 months. He was convicted of felony theft in both Douglas and Atchison counties in 2013, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

The woman, Samantha Dylyn Christine Besser, 29, of Eudora, is wanted for outstanding traffic violations.