By Angela Lau
San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune
VISTA, Calif. — A 19-year-old man who took an ambulance for a joyride and led police on a high-speed chase through Carmel Valley and Fairbanks Ranch pleaded guilty yesterday to numerous charges.
Nicholas Harris admitted to assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon by ramming a patrol car with the ambulance, evading arrest, driving on the wrong side of the road and auto theft.
The assault charge counts as a strike under California’s three-strikes law. Harris faces a maximum of six years and four months in state prison.
Yesterday, Vista Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz asked Harris if he understood the gravity of his offense and the amount of prison time he faces.
“You are pleading guilty to a strike offense,” Katz said. “If you are charged and convicted of a felony in the future and sent to state prison, your sentence will be doubled.”
Harris said yes and pleaded guilty as Katz read his charges. Katz later ordered him to undergo an evaluation for mental illness before returning for sentencing Jan. 15.
Afterward, prosecutor Bonnie Howard-Regan declined to reveal details of Harris’ crimes. His attorney also declined to comment. Police reports show that Harris stole a Carlsbad Fire Department ambulance Aug. 10 while he was being treated for a cut on his foot at Scripps Memorial Hospital-Encinitas.
Police caught up with him about 12:30 a.m. on Del Mar Heights Road in Carmel Valley, but Harris continued driving, reaching speeds of 60 mph on surface streets. At one point, he drove on the wrong side of the road.
While traveling east on Via de la Valle, he rammed a patrol car with the ambulance and did it again when he drove onto a San Diego Polo Club field on El Camino Real, injuring a sheriff’s deputy.
When officers laid down a spike strip to stop Harris, he drove over it, causing a sheriff’s deputy to jump out of the way.
The 30-minute chase ended when Harris crashed into a grove of eucalyptus trees in a Fairbanks Ranch gated community where the guard had opened the gate for them. Harris was subdued after officers shot him with Tasers.