MISSOULA — A man is facing numerous charges – including four felonies – after being accused of leading law enforcement on a pursuit in Missoula earlier this week.
Prosecutors state in court documents that Justin Ray Lewis Marceau led law enforcement on a pursuit after police attempted to perform a traffic stop.
An officer observed Marceau ran a stop sign at the intersection of Catlin Street and 5th Street shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.
According to court documents Marceau was then observed running another nearby stop sign. When the officer attempted to pull Marceau over he continued to drive at “a high rate of speed.”
The pursuit reached speeds of between 45 and 60 mph before Marceau crashed his Toyota Tundra pickup truck into a parked car as he attempted to turn onto South 7th Street West.
The pickup truck then drove through some bushes, across a yard and then crashed into a home, severing a natural gas line in the process.
Marceau then ran from the scene. He was eventually seen by a police officer coming out from behind a large tree at the corner of Hart Street and Addison Street, according to court documents.
Marceau claimed to be a resident of 840 Hart Street but could not produce identification. Prosecutors say he then became “argumentative and uncooperative” when told by the officer to move to the front of a patrol car.
Another police officer arrived at the scene and took one of Marceau’s shoes back to the crash site. Law enforcement compared the shoe’s sole with the tracks left by the fleeing suspect. They were a direct match, according to prosecutors.
Marceau eventually told law enforcement that he had been drinking all day, but " adamantly denied being the driver of the Tundra that evening,” according to court documents.
Marceau refused to perform standardized field sobriety tests and was eventually taken to St. Patrick Hospital so that a blood draw could be taken, which he eventually cooperated with.
Marceau was then transported to the Missoula County jail. According to prosecutors, Marceau’s driving record shows four prior DUI convictions in 1990, 2007, 2009, and 2018.
