CALDWELL, Idaho — A Caldwell man is in jail, despite pretending to be asleep when police finally caught up to him after a car chase, investigators say.
Rolando Castillo, 38, is charged with felony eluding, assault on an officer, grand theft, resisting and obstructing, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, and violating his parole.
The incident started at 12:43 a.m. Thursday after an officer spotted a silver SUV drive around a Road Closed sign on Ustick Road.
The officer followed the SUV, and attempted to pull the driver over at Ustick and Ashton Avenue. Instead of stopping, police say, the SUV kept going.
At the end of Ashton Avenue, the driver - later identified as Castillo - flipped a U-turn and drove straight at the officer's patrol car, according to court documents, forcing him to swerve out of the way to avoid being hit.
The suspect then turned east onto Ustick Road and took off, hitting speeds of up to 70 mph, police say.
The officer chased after him, and Castillo ultimately turned off into a trailer park at Ustick and Crow Drive. The driver sped through the trailer park, hitting speeds of 60 mph, according to the officer, before abruptly turning off into a field.
Castillo got out of the SUV and ran into the backyard of one of the mobile homes, according to court documents, before jumping over the fence into the front yard. The officer followed, climbing over the fence.
The address for that trailer matches the vehicle registration address on the silver SUV, according to police.
When the officer got to the front of the mobile home, Castillo was nowhere to be seen. He knocked loudly on the trailer's front door, and called out that he was with Caldwell Police, but no one answered.
According to police, the officer then looked into one of the trailer's windows, which had been left open.
"I observed two males and a female pretending to be asleep beside the front door that I had just pounded very loudly on," the officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
He called out to the three people inside and told them to come to the door. One of the men pretending to sleep was Castillo.
The woman told police the trailer was hers, and consented to a search. Inside the black shorts Castillo had been wearing, officers found $1,355 in cash. A search of the SUV also turned up 17.6 grams of methamphetamine, scales, a holster, and 9mm ammunition.
Officers ultimately found a 9mm handgun hidden under the shirt Castillo had been wearing. The gun had been reported stolen out of Meridian, according to police.
Castillo, who has prior felony convictions for drug possession, aggravated battery, grand theft, and other offenses, is prohibited from carrying a firearm. He was arrested and booked into the Canyon County Jail.
Castillo remains held on a $250,000 bond, and is due to appear in court Aug. 15 for a preliminary hearing.
