photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Department of Corrections

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

A Lawrence man pleaded no contest to fleeing from police in three car chases that ended in crashes.

Brandon Michael Helm, 30, was facing multiple felony drug possession charges, felony assault on law enforcement charges and misdemeanor criminal damage charges in addition to felony flee-and-elude charges, but in a plea agreement the state agreed to dismiss all but three felony flee and elude charges and that Helm would stipulate to violating his probation in two previous cases.

The first flee-and-elude case occurred on June 1, 2021, when an officer observed a gray Honda, with splotches of gray paint partially obscuring a temporary license tag, on Iowa Street near the Sixth Street underpass, Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster said. When the officer began to follow the car Helm fled and drove back onto Iowa into oncoming traffic, reaching speeds of 80 mph before turning onto Madeline Lane, where he drove through residential yards and an officer observed Helm throwing money from the car, Foster said.

Helm then sped across the yard of West Middle School and through the parking lot before crashing near the intersection of Crestline Drive and Oxford Road. He then fled on foot but was caught by police.

The second chase occurred on June 29, 2021, when Helm was driving a green Dodge Ram when an officer saw that the truck had a tag registered to another vehicle. When the officer tried to follow Helm, he fled. The chase ended when Helm crashed the truck in a backyard on Glenn Drive.

The third chase occurred the night of April 12, 2023, when an officer recognized Helm, who was driving a maroon Jeep SUV on 15th Street. The officer knew that Helm had outstanding warrants and attempted to pull him over. Helm fled, going in excess of 100 mph during the chase and nearly causing a head-on collision with a law enforcement officer’s vehicle, Foster said.

As the Journal-World reported, the chase started about 7:50 p.m. on East 15th Street near Craig Court but was discontinued east of Lawrence. 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.

At 8 p.m., the suspect in the Jeep was driving too fast for the curve at East 11th Street and Haskell Avenue 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.

Helm was on probation at the time of all three chases, with an underlying prison sentence of 44 months, for felony convictions in 2019 for drug distribution and attempted tampering with an electronic device.

Helm agreed at the hearing that he violated his probation when pleading to the new convictions and that he would serve his underlying sentence. Foster said the state believes Helm has a criminal history that would result in his being sentenced to 10 months on each flee-and-elude charge but that the plea agreement recommends the sentences run concurrently.

Foster said that in total Helm would serve about 54 months, or 4.5 years, when combining the new sentence with his underlying sentences from his 2019 convictions.

Helm has been in custody on a $30,000 cash or surety bond since his arrest in April. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 22.