Deputies locate, arrest work crew inmate who walked away from work site

SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested a wanted Geiger Work Crew Inmate who walked away from his assigned work detail on March 29.

Deputies started searching for 41-year-old Keith A. Smith, after he walked away from his assigned work detail near Market and Hawthorne.

On April 6, after 10 p.m., deputies followed up on tips that Smith had come and gone from mobile homes at the Takesa Village Mobile Home Park, located in the 11800 block of N. Wilson St.

Responding deputies saw a suspicious black Ford Taurus with an open trunk full of property.

A woman, later identified as Smith’s girlfriend, got out of the driver’s seat and walked back towards the car. Deputies also saw Smith sitting in the passenger side of the vehicle. Smith locked the car as deputies approached, got in the driver’s seat, and started the car.

Smith then drove out of the parking lot, grazing a pole and driving over large rocks on his way out.

Additional deputies arrived to assist, and they found fresh tire tracks in the area of Florence and Sheridan, which led them into another mobile home park. There they found the abandoned car crashed into the porch of a residence.

Deputies established a perimeter and a K9 unit was deployed. They found Smith inside a fenced storage area. Smith yelled he was “done running,” and laid down on the ground, and followed commands.

Smith was taken into custody and given medical attention for a cut he received while climbing the fence. He was then booked into the Spokane County Jail for his original misdemeanor charge, in addition to new misdemeanor charges of third degree escape, obstructing law enforcement, and hit-and-run property damage.

COPYRIGHT 2023 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.