Manhunt ends peacefully after suspects shoot at police
Fugitives opened fire Oct. 7 on law enforcement officers who were attempting to serve a warrant for their arrest at this home in Milburn.
Law enforcement officers from across the state responded to the incident, including the Utah Department of Public Safety, Utah County Sheriff’s Office and SWAT team, Snow College Police, Ephraim City Police, Fairview City Police, Utah Department of Corrections, and other agencies.
MILBURN — A massive two-day manhunt came to an end in the best way possible last Thursday as law enforcement officers captured a pair of suspects who fired on them earlier the day before.
According to reports from the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Department shots were fired at officers just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7. The officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on two fugitives wanted in Wyoming. No one was hit by the gunfire and officers retreated without returning fire.
James Pulver, a bail bondsman who said he was with officers at the time the suspect opened fire from inside the home, three different bail bond companies were looking for the couple. They were also being sought by Weber County Sheriff’s Office for the theft of a money box from a car wash in Ogden.
Following the officers’ retreat the couple fled on foot in to the heavily wooded area to the east of the home.
Law enforcement officers from across the state responded to the incident, including the Utah Department of Public Safety, Utah County Sheriff’s Office and SWAT team, Snow College Police, Ephraim City Police, Fairview City Police, Utah Department of Corrections, and other agencies. DPS helicopters were brought in as air support to look for the fugitives.
The search for the couple was intense, not just because they had already shot at officers but also because they had threatened in the past to go out shooting if they were ever caught again.
The man hunt carried on overnight and in to Thursday. According to Detective Derek Taysom of the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office after following a set of tracks into heavy brush officers were able to find and arrest the suspects without injury to anyone.
The suspects were identified as Brett Gilman Johnson, 51, and Jamie Carol Wheeler (aka Cleghorn), 41. According to the Gillette News Record the couple had been arrested in Gillette, Wyoming after breaking in to 17 storage units — one of which contained 18 guns. Warrants were issued by the court September 30 after they failed to appear on those charges.
Fast forward to 2013 and her crime spree picks up in Utah and Wyoming. In the spring of that year Wheeler accumulated a long series of charges spread across Duchesne, Utah, and Weber counties. Most of the charges were for fraud, forgery, and identity theft but also included giving pornography to a child under the age of 12. That charge was subsequently dropped. At that time officers found that she had over 40 outstanding warrants for her arrest.
After a crime spree that spilled over in to Wyoming, Wheeler was involved in a high-speed chase with Wyoming law enforcement officers. The chase ended with Wheeler being seriously injured and she was taken by Life Flight to the hospital at the University of Utah.
After several days police stopped monitoring her condition at the hospital, believing she was incapacitated and was not a flight risk. Soon after, Wheeler checked out of the hospital, without the hospital informing law enforcement, and was on the run again. She was apprehended a few days later and was tried on 35 different charges — mostly felonies, and she received a sentence of 150 days in jail along with fines and penalties.
According to Taysom, Wheeler and Johnson were being held in the Sanpete County Jail. As of press time charges had not been filed against the couple.
