SANTAQUIN, Utah (ABC4) — Michael Aaron Jayne, the man accused of hitting a Santaquin police officer with a semi and killing him over the weekend, has previously faced charges of violent crimes against law enforcement.
Jayne, 42, was originally taken into custody in 2009, according to the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Ore. There, he was originally charged with the attempted murder of an Oregon State Police Trooper after he tried to ram two cruisers. Jayne was eventually convicted to serve a “lengthy prison sentence,” according to reporting from the Record Searchlight in his native California.
A year later, Jayne was the subject of 17 criminal counts in California for assault upon a correctional officer and making criminal threats. Record Searchlight reported at that time that Jayne had threatened officers on “several occasions” while incarcerated in Shasta County, Calif.
Jayne made headlines again in 2012 in Barton County, Kan. after he allegedly fled from a traffic stop in a stolen vehicle. According to the Great Bend Tribune, the Barton County Sheriff’s Department described Jayne as a fugitive who was “armed and dangerous.”
The Barton County Sheriff’s Office reportedly told news outlets that Jayne has been “willing to enter into high-speed chases and cause accidents” to avoid capture. Authorities reportedly ended their manhunt for Jayne in July 2012, according to the Associated Press. By October 2012, Jayne was in Texas facing federal charges for possession of a firearm by a felon, court documents show.
Court documents show he was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and was released in 2021. Jayne did not reappear again until the incident in Utah this past weekend where he allegedly hit and killed a Santaquin police officer with a semi-truck. Jayne then reportedly stole multiple cars until he was taken into custody in Vernal.
