UPDATE: Stolen vehicle suspect caught after foot chase

By JEFFREY SIMMONS/Staff

The “rolling crime wave” stopped rolling on Wednesday in Wythe County.
Given the nickname by South Carolina police because of his suspected involvement in numerous auto thefts and burglaries, 30-year-old Jason Brian Osborne was nabbed by local officers in the Austinville area this week after an approximately 30-minute vehicle and foot chase sparked by a stolen vehicle report from a Dublin car lot. He was the third high-profile fugitive caught in the county this week. Two suspected bank robbers hauling guns, drugs and stolen cash were nabbed in Wytheville on Monday after a traffic stop.
No serious injuries were reported in either arrest.
According to Virginia State Police Sgt. M.T. Conroy, officers were looking for a stolen Dodge Dakota pickup on Wednesday when a deputy on a prisoner transport spotted the vehicle at 9:30 a.m. on Interstate 77.
A trooper started chasing the southbound truck a few minutes later and followed it off Exit 24 onto Lead Mine Road. Police said Osborne ditched the vehicle in a snow-covered field off Haphazard Road before taking off on foot with police in pursuit.
Wythe County Deputy Adam Williams and Capt. Doug Tuck caught Osborne at 10:11 a.m.
Police said Osborne tried to escape again at the Wytheville magistrate’s office but was unsuccessful.
He was charged with the attempted escape along with possessing a stolen vehicle, felony eluding police and two counts of property destruction.
Police said Osborne ran the pickup through two fences before abandoning it.
The local charges, though, are just the tip of his legal iceberg.
State police said they’ve already received more than 50 outstanding arrest warrants from six states for Osborne. One South Carolina law enforcement agency sent in 40 warrants, Conroy said.
Based on online media accounts, South Carolina police have been hunting for Osborne since late summer. He’s also facing charges in North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky.
In late December, a man believed to be Osborne managed to elude South Carolina police by jumping from a moving car that rolled into an officer’s vehicle, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported.
The paper said Osborne had 68 prior convictions stretching back to 1996.
Virginia police believe that Osborne may have been dropped off at the Dublin car lot by someone driving a stolen 2001 Nissan Pathfinder. The silver vehicle with North Carolina tag number YVD-9981 was spotted near First Stop Auto before the theft, police said.
When captured, Osborne had a credit card belonging to the Nissan’s owner, Conroy added.
Arraigned Thursday on the local charges, Osborne is being held in the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin.
His preliminary hearing has been set for March 11.
Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).