A 22-year-old Salt Lake City man was charged with murder on Wednesday after he allegedly crashed a stolen car trying to avoid spikes on the road deployed by police.
According to charging documents, officers from the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office and Heber City found Charles Dwight Caster driving a stolen vehicle in Wasatch County on Sept. 22. The officers attempted to stop him multiple times, but Caster fled onto Highway 40, where he initially avoided tire spikes deployed by Utah Highway Patrol. However, he crashed after swerving to avoid a second set of spikes deployed by Summit County Sheriff’s deputies.
Caster and his passenger were both ejected from the vehicle during the crash, and the woman died from her injuries, according to the documents.
An accident reconstruction conducted by the West Valley City Police Department determined that Caster overcorrected when changing lanes from the right shoulder to the right-hand lane, losing control of the vehicle. The car then went off the roadway and “rolled several times.” Caster was driving between 92 and 103 miles per hour at the time of the crash, documents state.
Caster was charged with a first-degree felony count of murder, a second-degree felony count of receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle and a third-degree felony count of failing to respond to an officer’s signal to stop.