HOT SPRINGS — A habitual offender who was out on parole and being sought on several felony warrants when he was arrested last week after a brief manhunt has pleaded innocent to all the charges.
Dillon Ray Ellis, 24, who remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $17,500 bond, appeared on video Monday in Garland County District Court and pleaded not guilty to felony counts of residential burglary; theft by receiving; first-degree terroristic threatening; felony fleeing; and second-degree criminal mischief. He also pleaded innocent to misdemeanor counts of first-degree assault, first-degree criminal mischief and fleeing on foot.
A felony review hearing to determine if the felony charges will be bound over to Garland County Circuit Court is set for Jan. 5. Judge Joe Graham also issued a court order barring Ellis from contact with the victim in the burglary, assault, threatening and criminal-mischief incident or her residence.
According to the probable-cause affidavit on the latter incident, a woman who resides in the 6800 block of Arkansas 7 North told Garland County Sheriff’s Office investigators that Ellis arrived at her trailer shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 1.
According to the report, she noted that Ellis had been staying at another trailer on the property, but he began beating and shaking her door. When she went to open the door, he pushed it open and forced his way in. She said he grabbed her by the neck and began choking her and “pushing in on her throat,” according to the report.
She said Ellis threw her on the floor and began yelling about his car keys, according to the affidavit. Then he allegedly ransacked the trailer and before finally leaving told her that if she called “the law” he would “burn her and her trailer down.”
Once outside, Ellis reportedly broke out the passenger side rear window of the victim’s minivan, the affidavit states. A warrant was later issued for Ellis’ arrest.
According to the affidavit on the theft-by-receiving and felony fleeing charges, shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 3 sheriff’s Cpl. Felix Hunter spotted a black Dodge Durango on Westinghouse Drive that he recognized as one reported stolen in Hot Spring County. It was being driven by a man with a woman in the front passenger seat.
Hunter activated his lights to make a traffic stop, but the vehicle began to flee and a pursuit began, according to the affidavit. Hunter pursued the Durango through several neighborhoods “at a high rate of speed” during which the driver failed to stop at stop signs and traffic lights.
When the vehicle got to Elmwood Drive, it failed to get around a corner, the affidavit states. The driver began to back up and ran over a fire hydrant and a mailbox near where some people were working. The vehicle then fled to Stanage Terrace, crossing Malvern Avenue at high speed and “nearly hitting an eighteen-wheeler on Malvern” that had to make an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision.
The vehicle continued on Stanage until it drove off a hill and became stuck, according to the affidavit. The driver and passenger jumped out and ran, and a search began. Neither person could be found and deputies finally left the area, the affidavit states.
Around 1:30 p.m., the sheriff’s office received a call from a witness who stated that a woman was walking in the area where the deputies had been searching earlier, according to the affidavit. Deputies responded and found Autumn Yvonne Bennett, 18, of Hot Springs who reportedly made a spontaneous statement that she was with Ellis when they wrecked their vehicle.