SAN JOSE – A 27-year-old woman on Wednesday pleaded guilty to firing a shotgun at authorities during a high-speed chase on Valentine’s Day in 2019, as well as later carjacking a UPS truck driver and taking him hostage, according to prosecutors.
Joanna Mae Macy-Rodgers faces a potential life sentence after pleading guilty to charges of attempted murder of a peace officer, carjacking and false imprisonment of a hostage, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Macy-Rodgers’ accomplice – Mark Morasky, 33, of Saratoga – was shot and killed by San Jose police Officer Nicholas Bronte during the incident. Bronte was later cleared of criminal liability.
“The Sheriff’s and San Jose Police Department stopped a violent couple from further mayhem,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “My office has taken a reckless and dangerous person off the streets for a long time. None of this county’s public safety agencies will allow criminals to turn our safe streets into the Wild West.”
The incident unfolded around 5 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2019, when two Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputies saw an SUV illegally park at the Ohlone-Chynoweth light rail station. When the deputies drove up, the SUV sped away with Morasky behind the wheel. Macy-Rodgers fired a shotgun at deputies during the ensuing chase, hitting one of their vehicles and a bystander’s car, according to prosecutors.
Morasky and Macy-Rodgers sped the wrong way on Highway 87 and made their way to Communications Hill, where they carjacked UPS driver Mitchell Ellerd, prosecutors said, adding that the pair threatened Ellerd with a shotgun and forced him to drive them away in his truck.
Ellerd later told investigators and members of the media he kept the truck’s speed to roughly 50 mph so that pursuing officers could keep pace. He also said he purposely ran over road spikes laid across the highway by authorities to disable the truck.
Macy-Rodgers surrendered to authorities when the truck finally stopped at North First Street and West Trimble Road. Morasky refused, but he eventually freed Ellerd.
Morasky tried to escape again in the truck, but San Jose police officers and sheriff’s deputies blocked him with armored vehicles. He then pointed a shotgun at authorities, left the truck with the loaded firearm and ran toward an area where members of the media were gathered behind police barricades, according to prosecutors.
That’s when Bronte fired a single shot from his service rifle, hitting and killing Morasky.
At the time of the incident, Morasky was on parole after serving four years in prison for a 2012 carjacking and two robberies in San Jose and Saratoga. Those convictions gave him two strikes under the state’s three-strikes law, making him eligible for life in prison were he to be convicted for a third violent or serious crime.
Source: www.mercurynews.com