By Angela Lau
San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune
VISTA, Calif. — A 19-year-old man who stole an ambulance and led police on a 30-minute chase through Carmel Valley and Fairbanks Ranch pleaded guilty to numerous charges Wednesday morning.
Nicholas Harris admitted assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon by ramming a patrol car with the ambulance, driving on the wrong side of the road and auto theft. The assault charge counts as a strike under California’s three-strikes law.
Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz ordered Harris to be evaluated for mental illness before he returns to court for sentencing Jan. 15. Harris faces a maximum sentence of six years and four months in state prison.
According to police reports, Harris was at Scripps Memorial Encinitas Hospital Aug. 10, receiving treatment to a cut on his foot, when he drove off in a Carlsbad Fire Department ambulance.
Police officers caught up to the ambulance in Carmel Valley at 12:30 a.m. and chased after it, but Harris did not stop.
He drove through surface streets at 60 mph, and, at one time, against oncoming traffic, according to police and court reports.
Harris also rammed a patrol car with the ambulance, but succumbed after officers shot him with Tasers.
Although two sheriff’s deputies were injured in the chase, Deputy District Attorney Bonnie Howard-Regan only charged Harris with one count of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon in exchange for his guilty plea.