Justin Jacob was sentenced to 11 years in 2003 for vehicular homicide and an OWI in connection with the death of Davis County Deputy Dennis McElderry. Jacob was released in 2008.
By Matt Buhrman
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 10:22 p.m.
Read more: Local
BLOOMFIELD, IOWA -- Memorials inside and outside of the Davis County Law Center mark a connection to the recent events in Seymour, Iowa. Deputy Dennis McElderry was killed in a high speed chase in January of 2003.
Sheriff Dave Davis recalled Deputy McElderry on Friday.
"He actually enjoyed working the nightshift. And being amongst a lot of different people, always had a smile on his face. He was involved in several things in the community and one that sticks out in my mind is that he was with Dollars for Scholars and really looked forward to helping kids out in the community," Sheriff Davis said.
The night before the Seymour incident, Sheriff Davis said that law enforcement officials in Davis and Wapello County were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Justin Jacob, for failure to appear in court on charges of assaulting a peace officer. Jacob was nowhere to be found.
On Thursday morning, Seymour High School was where the high speed chase ended. A trooper placed stop sticks on the street attempting to puncture a tire on suspect Justin Jacob's pickup truck. When the truck rammed a patrol car, the trooper fired shots. Jacob was hit, and airlifted to a Des Moines hospital for treatment. His condition is still unknown.
"Any habits or actions that we all have, you have got to want to change yourself. You can have a lot of people wanting you to change, but if you don’t want to change yourself or change your actions, you’re probably not going to," Sheriff Davis said.
The events in Seymour, Iowa on Thursday were strikingly similar to the events that happened at the intersection of Highway 63 and 170th Street just north of Bloomfield, Iowa. On that January night in 2003, Justin Jacob was leading police on a high speed chase heading south when Deputy Dennis McElderry was setting up stop sticks. As Jacob sped past, Deputy McElderry was accidentally hit and killed by a patrol car. Jacob later turned himself in and was charged with vehicular homicide.
"If you are going to try and outrun a law enforcement officer...you need to understand that your actions, if somebody is hurt along that pursuit or killed, the law is that you are going to be prosecuted for the injury or death of some innocent person out here," Sheriff Davis said.
