Dash cam video used to convict man of using vehicle as deadly weapon

HENDERSON COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - Dash cam video shows people being forced off the road after a man in a stolen pickup truck started a high-speed chase in Henderson County.

The man behind the wheel in the video is 34-year-old Joshua Paul Calhoun. A Henderson jury took eight minutes to find Calhoun guilty of evading arrest and using his vehicle as a deadly weapon.

The chase started on June 18, 2014, on Highway 155 near Lake Palestine. Henderson County Deputy Spencer Gray spotted Calhoun driving a stolen pickup truck.

"We just turned on County Road 4222. He's going to run," Gray told dispatchers moments later.

Gray followed Calhoun on CR 4222, reaching speeds up to 90 miles-per-hour. Calhoun later turned into a pasture and Gray could no longer see the pickup truck.

"It looks like he's going through the woods right here. He may have doubled back on us," said Gray.

He then found the stolen pickup truck wrecked near the edge of the woods. Gray got out of his patrol car with his gun drawn and walked slowly toward the truck.

"The keys are gone. There's a knife right there too," said Gray, "He done run off way in the pasture. We are way down in the bottom. He done bailed out and the trucks sitting here wrecked ... We don't know if he's armed, so stay on your toes."

Gray and another deputy headed back to the front of the pasture to set up a perimeter. Dozens of officers arrived to help in the search.

Calhoun was later found nearly a mile away on the porch of a building. Deputies say he tried to run again but finally surrendered at gunpoint. They were also able to identify him by a Whataburger receipt found in the truck. Deputies say that meal was purchased 14 minutes before Calhoun's fateful chase began.

Calhoun's sentencing hearing is set for February 12.

This is not his first time behind bars. Calhoun was charged with stealing a plane from the Athens airport in 2009. Deputies found that plane crashed in some nearby woods.

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