Man pleads guilty to DWI, fleeing police in February

A Cape Girardeau man pleaded guilty Monday to driving while intoxicated and resisting a lawful stop while trying to help his son elude police in February.

Eddie Kent, 55, admitted he was under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine when he fled from police, at one point driving toward oncoming traffic on Cape Rock Drive in an attempt to elude officers.

"I made very poor judgment," Kent told Judge Benjamin Lewis in court Monday. " ... I didn't want to hit nobody."

Kent's son, Eric D. Kent, then 31, of Jonesboro, Ark., was wanted on Arkansas warrants for possession of methamphetamine, kidnapping, aggravated assault and theft.

During a preliminary hearing in April, officer Cary Dunavan testified he noticed a red pickup truck parked outside Eddie Kent's trailer when he went there to look for Eric Kent after receiving information he might be staying there.

After searching the area, Dunavan noticed the truck was gone, he testified.

He located the truck and followed it, suspecting Eric Kent might be inside.

After Dunavan pulled the truck over on Cape Rock Drive and ordered the driver to turn off the vehicle, the truck accelerated forward, he testified.

Officers pursued the truck to an intersection where the vehicle ended up boxed in by traffic.

They arrested Eddie and Eric Kent, along with Mindi M. Mahan, 24, of Marmaduke, Ark.

"I was under the influence and shouldn't have been driving," Eddie Kent said Monday in court.

In pleading guilty to DWI and resisting a stop, he also admitted to violating his probation on an earlier case.

Lewis ordered a sentencing assessment report and advised Eddie Kent he could receive up to 15 years in prison -- four years each for resisting a stop and violating his probation, and seven years for the DWI.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Angel Woodruff recommended Kent be sentenced to four years in prison on the February charges, to be served concurrently with his sentence on the probation violation.

Kent's attorney, Gordon Glaus, asked Lewis to consider ordering Kent into a long-term substance abuse treatment program instead.

The disposition of Eric Kent's case was not immediately clear. Online court records from Arkansas show no methamphetamine, kidnapping or assault charges for anyone by that name, and authorities in Craighead County, Ark., where Eric Kent lived, and Greene County, Ark., where Mahan lived, found no matching charges.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Cape Rock Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.