A days-long police pursuit through Delaware and surrounding counties ended Thursday with a Muncie man's arrest.
Mark Justice, 30, was taken into custody Thursday on a string of charges including two counts of possession of methamphetamine, one count of dealing methamphetamine, one count of maintaining a common nuisance, one count of resisting law enforcement and one count of possession of a stolen vehicle among others, according to court documents.
Police originally conducted a controlled buy on Monday at Justice's home in the 7900 block of N. Royerton Park Drive.
The following day, police executed a search warrant at the home but Justice was not there.
On Wednesday, police located Justice's Chevrolet Blazer with stolen plates in Royerton, just north of Muncie. When police attempted to pull him and his passenger over, Justice drove through a corn field. He then drove into Blackford county and drove through a bean field toward a wooded area.
Police found Justice and his passenger, Josh Markwell, as they were attempting to run into the forest. When the officer attempted to arrest them, Justice took off into the woods and was able to again escape police.
When police began searching the vehicle they found .62 grams of methamphetamine. Police also located a container with three syringes, three smoking pipes and six bags of crystal meth. The bags totaled 22 grams.
The next day police received a call about a "suspicious subject" that was wearing the same clothes as Justice from the previous night.
When officers got into the area, Justice ran into the woods. Neighboring Royerton Elementary School was placed on lockdown.
Various police and sheriff agencies searched the woods for several hours. An officer and his K-9 partner were able to find Justice in a drainage ditch behind the woods.
Justice was taken to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital and was denied bail.
Contact Max Lewis with comments at lmaxwell2@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @MaxLewisReports.
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