Santa Clara man accused of stealing van from jail parking lot arrested following SR-7 rollover

ST. GEORGE —A rollover crash that occurred Saturday on Southern Parkway led to the arrest of a Santa Clara man, who was found to be a suspect in a previous case involving a van that was stolen from the parking lot of the jail in Washington County.

File photo of Toyota Camry following rollover on state Route 7 in St. George, Utah, March 11, 2023 | Photo by Layce Lundy, St. George News

Jordan Phoenix Neal, 27, was arrested Saturday following a rollover crash on Southern Parkway reported shortly before 11 a.m. in Washington County.

Neal, the driver, reportedly told police he reached for his phone and lost control of the vehicle. The car veered off the shoulder and continued down an embankment where it rolled and landed on its side, as previously reported by St. George News. 

After learning that Neal was a suspect in a previous case reported Jan. 28, in which a van was reported stolen from the parking lot of Purgatory Correctional Facility in Hurricane, officers arrested him. They then notified the detective handling the felony theft case that Neal was in custody, according to charging documents filed in the 5th District Court.

In reference to the theft case, investigators say they obtained video footage that showed a man, later identified as Neal, enter the driver’s side of a delivery van that was left running in the parking lot and flee at a high rate of speed.

Hurricane Police Officer Dan Raddatz told St. George News that just prior to the incident, a delivery driver pulled up to the jail to drop off a package and left the van running in the parking lot. When he returned, the van was gone.

Detectives also learned that Neal, who had been an inmate at the jail, had been released from the facility just prior to the theft.

Raddatz said it was a “crime of opportunity,” being that Neal left the facility just in time to find the van running unattended, which left him a very narrow window of opportunity to take the van.

2020 file photo for illustrative purposes only of Hurricane Police officers on state Route 9 and North 2600 West, Hurricane, Utah, Sept. 23, 2020 | Photo by Cody Blowers, St. George News

“It also made it much easier to identify him, since he had just walked out of the jail,” he added.

Later that day, the van was found in the parking lot of a pharmacy in St. George, the same location where Neal had been arrested the previous evening.

Upon his arrest, the vehicle he had been driving was left in that parking lot, which led investigators to suspect that Neal drove the stolen van to the pharmacy to switch vehicles and abandon the van.

When efforts to locate Neal were unsuccessful, an alert was broadcast out to all surrounding agencies to be on the lookout for him, the same broadcast that ultimately led to his arrest Saturday morning on Southern Parkway.

Investigators requested Neal be held without bail, citing that Neal has a number of open cases still pending in the courts, including one that Neal was scheduled to appear in court on at the end of March.

Infograph depicting blood alcohol levels and effects on the body | Image courtesy of the University of Rochester, St. George News

In that case, Washington County Prosecutor Joseph Hood filed a motion to revoke Neal’s pretrial release agreement based on the recent arrest, in addition to other alleged violations for drug use and for failing to check in with pretrial services. Neal was scheduled to appear in court for a show cause hearing March 31.

The defendant has had multiple arrests and convictions since 2013, including a DUI arrest in April 2019, involving a crash at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Lava Flow Drive in St. George.

Witnesses reportedly told police that just prior to the crash, they saw Neal heading down Sunset at more than 60 mph. Seconds after impact, Neal reportedly got out of his car and started yelling at the other driver.

The report also states Neal failed the field sobriety test at the scene. The breathalyzer results indicated the suspect had a blood alcohol level of .035, which is equivalent to being placed under general anesthesia for surgery, according to the University of Rochester.

The defendant pleaded guilty to the DUI charge and was fined and placed on 12 months’ probation.

On Monday, the Washington County Attorney’s Office filed the case on the van theft and Neal was formally charged with second-degree felony theft following the arrest on Saturday.

An initial appearance has been scheduled to take place in 5th District Court on Friday. Neal remains in custody without bail.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

St. George News reporter Layce Lundy contributed to this report.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

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