The man who led P.E.I. police from four jurisdictions on a multi-day road chase across the Island in July has been sentenced to more than two years in jail.
Police arrested Jermen Jah Payne, 29, on July 22 while he was hiding among some oyster cages in the water of Cascumpec Bay. That brought an end to a chase that had riveted Islanders on social media due to Payne’s dangerous and erratic driving as he sped from Stratford to New Haven to Bloomfield.
Payne appeared in court last month and pleaded guilty to 21 charges. A handful of others were stayed by the Crown.
Court documents, some of which list his first name as Jerman rather than Jermen, show Payne had no permanent address at the time of his arrest. He had previously lived in Summerside and Stanley Bridge and had a Buick SUV registered in New Brunswick.
Payne was also already on a court-ordered driving ban that was mere weeks away from ending when he was caught driving his Buick with an expired registration sticker on July 16.
A Charlottetown police officer noticed the plate issue and tried to pull him over, but Payne took off. The officer pursued him, but gave up the chase in the interest of public safety since Payne was doing about 90 kilometres an hour on Queen Street.
Police soon tracked him down again, but he drove over a walkway and lawn to get away.
Stole gas along the way
Payne then spent the next six days driving around P.E.I., stealing gas as he went.
He also switched vehicles, stealing an unlocked Dodge Journey that had been left running in a Summerside convenience store parking lot.
Court documents show police eventually put together that they were pursuing the same suspect and tracked him across the Island. Every time, they had to abandon their chases when Payne escalated to dangerous speeds.
In one case, he was clocked going 155 kilometres an hour in Summerside, slowing only slightly to enter a roundabout.
Finally, in the early hours of July 22, Summerside Police got a tip that the stolen Dodge was back and speeding through the city. It then made its way west to Miminegash and West Devon.
From a Dodge to a Ford
Finally, RCMP set up a roadblock in Alaska, and Payne sped toward it before pulling a U-turn.
He then crashed the Dodge in a ditch and abandoned it before stealing another vehicle: a Ford F-150 towing a boat trailer, which he detached and left behind.
Jermen Jah Payne was eventually caught clinging to a buoy amongst oyster cages in the Cascumpec Bay near Roxbury. (Mare McLeese/CBC)
Then, with police in heavy pursuit, he also abandoned the Ford — and his clothes — before plunging into Cascumpec Bay.
This is where police eventually found him, clinging to a buoy. They used the Tyne Valley Fire Services boat to get to him and make the arrest.
Sent off-Island to federal prison
Payne stayed in jail for the 71 days leading up to his sentencing in October.
After pleading guilty on 21 charges ranging from July 16 to 22, he was sentenced to 860 days in jail, with 754 days to go on that sentence after credit for time served.
He also has to pay over $12,000 for all the stolen gas and damage to the stolen Dodge he crashed.
Because his sentence is more than two years, Payne will serve his time in a federal corrections facility off-Island.
He will be banned from driving for three years after he is released.