Deputies, OSP SWAT team arrest fugitive, wife at CRR home

An Oregon State Police SWAT team and its armored vehicle helped Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies arrest a fugitive wanted in two counties early Monday morning at a home in Crooked River Ranch, along with his wife.

Deputies said the pair came out and surrendered peacefully, despite the husband having allegedly made threats to kill police if they tried to apprehend him and send him back to prison.

A domestic disturbance call a week ago from a neighbor led deputies to learn that Marcus Gene St. Clair, 40, wanted on several felony and misdemeanor warrants, was living at a home on Southwest Sand Ridge Road with his wife, Emily Anne St. Clair, 31, said Undersheriff Marc Heckathorn.

Marcus St. Clair is a corrections offender on “abscond” status and has a history of resisting arrest, assault and drug charges, Heckathorn said. St. Clair reportedly has ties to a gang and had made threats to kill law enforcement, should attempts be made to apprehend him.

Due to the danger, his home (located down a long driveway, behind a locked gate) was placed under surveillance, and deputies confirmed Sunday night that he and a woman were alone in the home after Marcus St. Clair went on a motorcycle ride.

A search warrant was drafted and signed by a judge, leading to its serving around 3 a.m. Monday, Heckathorn said.

An armored vehicle was used to approach the house, and police used a loudspeaker to call for the occupants to leave the home. Both complied and came out without further incident, the undersheriff said.

Heckathorn said the property was searched, but not the house, as the search warrant was only to find and arrest the wanted fugitive, and they had no information indicating that he had guns in the home.

Marcus St. Clair was held without bail at the Jefferson County Jail on a parole violation and a new felony charge of driving with a suspended license, as well as a warrant out of Deschutes County for probation violation, fourth-degree assault and menacing and a Multnomah County warrant for meth possession and driving with a criminally suspended license, resulting from a driving situation that led to a death.

Emily St. Clair was booked on a charge of hindering prosecution, with an initial $10,000 bail, and conditionally released by the DA’s office later Monday.