EUREKA, Calif. (KIEM)-A local business man can says, he’s lucky to be alive, after he says a man tried to carjack him with a gun.
That man is wanted out of Washington State for murder – and back in 2018 he was arrested in South Carolina for threatening to fillet a baby – among other charges.
“If you get out of the truck, I’m going to shoot you,” said car dealership owner Jim Finney.
He’s been in the car business since about 1975 – this was his worst nightmare – his fear, the man would take him in a secluded area and “probably shoot” him.
The saga began around 5:30 Saturday.
“He said, he was a fireman, without a job, couldn’t get to the job without a truck and we went on a test drive,” said Finney. “We pulled over at the Vista Point in Samoa.”
That’s when Finney says, the man, now identified 37-year-old Matthew Collett, said he needed to relieve himself, then got back in the truck.
“He pulled a gun and said to me, you know what this is about right,” he said. “So we got in a scuffle, I got him out of the truck, and he basically ran down the tracks.”
Marcus Finney says, his grandfather is not someone to mess with.
“I was scared, pretty scared for sure,” he said. “He’s a pretty tough guy.”
Humboldt County deputies arrived on scene – searched the area and ultimately located Collett walking on a trail and took him into custody.
The sheriff’s K-9 deputy and his handler later recovered the fire arm connected to Collett.
According Chief Criminal Deputy of Investigations Jason Dracobly with the Mason County Sheriff’s Office out of Washington State, the public was instrumental in locating the suspects.
“Through the help of the FBI, and some informants we got a hit down there in Humboldt County on Saturday,” he said. “I think the female was in custody first on some sort of suspicious traffic stop.”
That female – later identified as 28-year-old Kylie Kadeen Craig- who was arrested Saturday after the California Highway Patrol recognized her as matching the description of one of two fugitives wanted out of Washington State.
“We received a call about a body over an embankment and that was on October 2, 2020,” Dracobly said. “We’ve been trying to piece this thing together.”
According to Dracobly, the woman in identified as Rachell Rene Roberts of Washington, was found badly beaten.
An autopsy performed October 5 concluded the victim was assaulted and died of suffocation.
Mason County officials says, it was “apparent” from evidence at the scene, Roberts’ death was a homicide.
As for Finney, he’ll be taking his own advice.
“You don’t go on a test drive until you get a copy of a driver’s license, and basically I didn’t do that,” he said.
If Collett and Craig refuse extradition the prosecutor’s office will request a Governor’s Order, according to Jacobly.
Both suspects are currently in the Humboldt County correctional facility.
