A teenage couple from Kentucky dubbed a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde by media outlets are now in custody of the police after having been found sleeping inside a pickup truck stolen in Georgia.
Eighteen-year-old Dalton Hayes and his girlfriend, 13-year-old Cheyenne Phillips, are now in the custody of the Panama City Beach police in Bay County, Florida after having been found sleeping inside a 2001 Toyota Tundra believed to have been stolen in Georgia. The arrest marks the culmination of a 14-day hunt for the Grayson County teens who have eluded authorities across multiple states.
"I spoke to Dalton and he was very scared and he wanted to come home," Grayson County sheriff Norman Chaffins says. "He wanted me to come bring him home."
At approximately 12:10 on Sunday morning, the U.S. Marshal's Service and the Panama City Beach police found the teens sleeping inside the stolen Tundra. Chaffins say the vehicle was surrounded by law enforcement officers and the teens were taken into custody with no incident.
The process for extraditing the teens back to Kentucky has begun, the sheriff says. He expects Hayes and Phillips back in their home state by the end of the week, during which both will face charges of theft, burglary, criminal trespassing, and criminal mischief. Phillips will be tried in juvenile court.
In Florida, Hayes is also facing a charge of custodial interference, as per Bay County jail records. He is scheduled to make his first appearance in court on Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Phillips, in the meantime, has been taken to a "safe location until arrangements with the family are made," says DaMonica Rivas, spokesperson for the Department of Children and Families in Florida.
Tammy Martin, Hayes' mother, urged her son and his girlfriend to surrender and "face the consequences" of their actions. For the three months the two have been dating, Martin says she always believed Phillips' claim that she was 19 years old, as she would "go in and write checks and she would come out with cigarettes and stuff." She says her son was already "done in love with her" when he realized she was five years his minor.
On Jan. 3, Phillips' family reported her missing to Clarkson City authorities. Hayes' family last heard from their son on Jan. 6. According to Grayson County authorities, the couple first stole a truck in Clarkson where they crashed it into a fence before fleeing from authorities. An hour later, they reportedly stole a Toyota Tacoma which was recovered in Henry County, Georgia.
The two were also caught on a surveillance camera at a Walmart store in Manning, South Carolina, where they could be facing "minor" criminal charges for allegedly forging a check.
"We could pursue criminal charges against them," said Blair Shaffer, chief of the Manning police department, two days before the couple was found. "We just have to continue to wait. And once they're found then we can look at the circumstances and decide if that would be something we'd want to pursue."
The couple is believed to have stolen the Tundra from a man's home's driveway last week. The pickup truck had two handguns, a .38-caliber and a .45-caliber inside.
Hayes was on the run from theft and burglary charges filed against him in Kentucky. He was scheduled to appear in court to find out if he was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 5.
In a statement, Chaffins says the teens have become a "danger to themselves, other citizens, and the police," but maintained that the police does not liken them to Bonnie and Clyde, a duo of outlaws and robbers who killed at least nine police officers and several civilians during the Great Depression.
"[This] is a label placed solely by the media," Chaffins says. "I have spoken to the contrary about that by stating they have committed no violent crimes or physically harmed anyone."
