Texas man jailed after crash of stolen car east of Bend; stolen rifle found

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Texas man who crashed a stolen pickup truck on George Millican Road east of Bend on Saturday morning was found nearby, wearing body armor, and was arrested on several charges after a stolen AR-15 rifle and other items were found in the vehicle, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies were dispatched around 8 a.m. to the single-vehicle rollover reported near milepost 23 on George Millican Road., Lt. Ty Rupert said. While en route, they were advised the pickup and license plates may have been stolen out of Deschutes County, and that there was no one around the vehicle.

Deputies found the 2006 Ford F-250 pickup upside-down off the side of the road, Rupert said, and determined it had been stolen out of Bend on Monday, June 1.

Sheriff’s K-9 Ezel and partner Deputy Jeremiah Johnson conducted a track leading from the pickup and found a man sitting on a rock about 200 yards away, identified as Jacob Cody Echols, 37, of Texas (no hometown listed).

Rupert said Echols was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with body armor on underneath. Beside him was a backpack with a machete, and inside the crashed pickup, deputies found a stolen AR-15, with loaded magazines.

An inventory of the stolen pickup also turned up hockey-type masks, stolen license plates and pry bars. The Crook County Sheriff’s Office helped in the investigation.

Echols received minor injuries in the crash but refused medical treatment, Rupert said.

He was taken into custody without incident and lodged in the county jail in Bend on charges of unauthorized use of and entry into a motor vehicle, two counts of second-degree theft, felon in possession of a firearm and body armor, first- and second-degree criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools.

Echols remained in jail on Monday, held on $50,000 bail.