A former Charter Oak man convicted of hitting a police officer with his vehicle and trying to run down the Crawford County Sheriff has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Thirty-four year old Jason “Jake” Powell was sentenced after being convicted in August of attempted murder, eluding officers, second-degree theft and assault on a peace officer. Crawford County Attorney Tom Gustafson says Powell was driving a stolen pickup truck and led a high-speed chase across Denison. Gustafson says Powell struck a Denison patrol car during the chase and then tried to run down the Crawford County Sheriff. He says instead of stopping, Powell turned onto the parking and went straight at Sheriff Tom Hogan. The sheriff had to jump out of the way to avoid being run over. Powell later abandoned the truck outside of town and was captured. Gustafson says the jury only took a brief time to reach a verdict. He says the whole issue at the trial was who the jury would believe. He says Powell testified that he didn’t meant to harm Sheriff Hogan and was trying to avoid the sheriff. Gustafson says the Sheriff’s version of the story proved to be what the jury believed. He says the Sheriff testified that the vehicle came directly at him and Powell saw him and he had to jump out of the way. Powell was also ordered to pay a fine of one-thousand 750 dollars.
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