By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Yukon man who rammed his car into a Yukon police cruiser during a high-speed pursuit last summer has been sentenced to prison.
Quanah Stephen Shaw, 46, is a convicted felon after pleading no contest Feb. 27 to endangering others while attempting to elude police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and pattern of criminal offenses.
Shaw was charged July 28, 2022, in connection with a chase that started on Main Street in Yukon and ended near Interstate 40 and MacArthur in Oklahoma City.
The defendant, represented by public defender Jason Spanich, entered the no-contest plea to the three felony charges in Canadian County District Court.
“If the case were to go to trial, the state would call Lt. Zach Bradford to testify that on July 21, 2022, the defendant drove in excess of 90 mph weaving in and out of traffic when Lt. Bradford attempted to conduct a traffic stop in a marked police vehicle,” according to Shaw’s signed plea.
“And that the defendant intentionally collided his vehicle into Lt. Bradford’s police cruiser with intent to cause bodily harm and that the events occurred in Oklahoma and Canadian counties.”
As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, Shaw was sentenced to serve two years in state prison followed by eight years suspended.
Sentences on all three felony counts – and misdemeanor domestic assault and battery and violation of protective order charges – will run concurrently.
Canadian County Special Judge David H. Halley approved the plea deal.
ENDANGERED OTHERS
Shaw had faced up to 17 years in prison for willfully eluding Lt. Bradford “by accelerating away” from the Yukon officer’s marked police unit and “driving in excess of 90 miles per hour while weaving in and out of traffic and endangering numerous other persons” who were traveling on the streets, according to the charging document signed by Assistant District Attorney John Salmon.
Bradford tried to pull over Shaw in the 1100 block of E Main shortly before midnight July 21. Shaw was driving a 2009 Hyundai sedan with a license plate that belonged on another vehicle.
Shaw failed to yield or stop for red lights as the chase proceeded through Yukon city streets, then eastbound onto I-40 and into Oklahoma County.
The early-morning chase ended when the pursuing officer stopped Shaw’s car using a tactical vehicle intervention (TVI) maneuver.
Oklahoma City Police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol helped Yukon Police during the high-speed pursuit.
Shaw was arrested at the scene without incident and the vehicle he was driving was impounded. He was booked at 4:30 a.m. that day into the Canadian County Jail.
Shaw has a lengthy record of traffic offenses between 1999 and 2021 in Canadian and Pawnee counties for speeding, failure to stop at stop sign, driving without insurance, and not wearing a seatbelt. He also has a 2010 Oklahoma County conviction for fishing without a license.
