EVERETT — Months after he was released on bail awaiting trial on other criminal charges, a Snohomish County man escaped police multiple times and rammed his car into patrol vehicles, injuring officers, according to new charges.
This month, prosecutors accused Josiah Degenstein of 13 new crimes, including three counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of first-degree malicious mischief, one count of first-degree unlawful firearm possession, four counts of driving with a suspended license, one count of resisting arrest and one count of illegal possession of an explosive.
On July 19, an officer saw Degenstein, 27, around an Everett apartment complex in the 3300 block of Nassau Street. Records showed Degenstein had an active felony escape warrant because he didn’t appear in court in another criminal case. Degenstein drove away from the complex in an Acura TL, and officers tried to follow him, according to court records. Police lost sight of him after he drove onto I-5, passing vehicles at over 90 mph.
A week later, police found the same Acura at an address in Marysville.
Around 8:30 p.m., two people pulled up there on motorcycles without license plates, the charges say. Degenstein left, riding a red-and-black motorcycle. Officers tried to follow him, but he again drove at a “high rate of speed,” passing vehicles and running stop signs.
A couple days later, Everett police spotted Degenstein at a home on 75th Street SE in Everett. Police called sheriff’s deputies and correctional officers for backup.
Degenstein drove away in the Acura, stopping again in the 3400 block of Oakes Avenue. Officers devised a plan to block in the car with their patrol vehicles, according to court papers. Around 4:30 p.m., a state Department of Corrections officer activated his patrol car’s flashing lights and drove up to the Acura.
The suspect allegedly accelerated forward as he did a U-turn, according to the charges. He collided with the passenger side of the officer’s car, maintaining his U-turn until he was driving south.
Degenstein drove head-on into a deputy’s patrol car driving north, court papers said. Airbags deployed in both vehicles. A Mountlake Terrace police officer then drove his patrol car behind the Acura, pinning it to the front of the deputy’s car.
According to the court documents, Degenstein pressed on the accelerator while pinned between the patrol vehicles. He repeatedly backed up and drove forward as he tried to get out of the pin, court papers said.
“Degenstein’s actions put us and the pedestrians in the area in extreme danger, since he was using the Acura as a weapon,” according to a police report.
The collisions injured the Corrections officer’s neck and wrist as well as the neck of the sheriff’s deputy.
Officers broke out the driver’s side window of the Acura and pulled Degenstein out through the window, detectives wrote.
Police arrested Degenstein. He reportedly spoke with officers, telling them he hadn’t been checking in with the Department of Corrections because he was using fentanyl and meth, according to the police report.
He reportedly said he used drugs earlier in the day. When officers pulled up, Degenstein “got scared” and drove because he didn’t know who they were.
Degenstein had been driving the Acura for a few weeks, but it belonged to his friend, detectives wrote. He reported he sold cars to make money, the report said. He’d been trying to move his stuff to different storage places and lived “nowhere,” according to the charges.
Officers searched the Acura and found: a 9 mm pistol, 10,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills and fentanyl powder, 183 grams of meth, digital scales and unused baggies, a drug ledger containing people’s names and an improvised explosive device, according to the police report.
The device was likely a “cherry bomb,” a bomb technician determined. The bomb was a sphere 1½ inches in diameter, attached with a hobby fuse. The technician found flash powder inside and discovered the substance was explosive after conducting tests, according to the charges.
Degenstein has over half a dozen previous felony convictions, according to court records. In January, prosecutors charged him with two counts of first-degree unlawful firearm possession. He posted $50,000 bail in March. That case remained active this week.
Degenstein remained in the Snohomish County Jail on Monday, with bail set at $475,000.
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall.
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