WASHINGTON COUNTY — A 19-year-old Colorado man is in police custody after he was discovered to be driving a stolen vehicle Friday during a traffic stop on Interstate 15.

While Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Lars Gardner was parked in the I-15 median at 7:15 a.m. Friday, he clocked a silver Toyota Camry traveling south at 94 mph, Gardner wrote in a probable cause statement supporting the arrest. The trooper conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle around milepost 33 and spoke with the two occupants.

Upon speaking with the trooper, the driver of the Camry, Justin Colman, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, informed the trooper he had just purchased the car from a friend, the statement said.

“Dispatch then advised me that the plates had returned as stolen plates,” Gardner said in the statement. “I ordered (Colman) to turn off the car and remove the key.”

After running the vehicle’s identification number, Gardner also discovered that the vehicle itself was also reported stolen, the statement said. Gardner placed both Colman and the passenger under arrest and searched the vehicle.

During an inventory of the vehicle, troopers located a purple metal and wood pipe containing burnt marijuana inside the car’s center console, Gardner said in the statement. After this discovery, Gardner spoke with Colman about what he had found.

“He admitted that he that he had stolen the vehicle and the plate,” Gardner said in the statement. “He admitted that the drug paraphernalia was his. He explained (the passenger) had nothing to do with any of the crimes and was just along for the ride.”

After clearing the scene, the troopers transported the passenger to their office to await his mother and placed Colman under arrest, the statement said.

Colman was transported and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility. He was charged with one second-degree felony for theft of an operable vehicle, two class B misdemeanors for theft and possession of drug paraphernalia and once class C misdemeanor for speeding. His bail for release is set at $12,000.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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