A Virginia Beach man told a Westmoreland County judge he believed he was a time traveler who was in desperate need to save his son from a corrupt government when he stole a car in a Hempfield shopping plaza and later led police on a high-speed 40-mile chase on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last year.
“I stole a car because I was tired of walking,” Thomas W. Lee said during a court hearing on Tuesday. “I thought I was a time traveler because I was on drugs. I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. I was just trying to save my son.”
Lee, 39, pleaded no contest to 24 charges including aggravated assault with a vehicle, drunken driving, fleeing police, resisting arrest and numerous traffic offenses in connection with an incident last Sept. 29 that started at Greengate Centre Plaza in Hempfield.
Police said Lee stole a 2013 Nissan Altima after its occupant left the vehicle to enter a local pizza shop. According to court records, police located the vehicle about two hours later near Cheswick in Allegheny County and pursed it along the Pennsylvania Turnpike at speeds that exceeded 100 mph.
Authorities said Lee exited the turnpike in Irwin and continued to speed on Route 30 traveling both east and westbound. At one point during the case he intentionally swerved into a police vehicle, according to court records.
The chase ended after Lee ran over a spike strip used by police to deflate the car’s tires. Police said Lee veered off the toll road and careened over an embankment into a grassy stone culvert and then ran away. Police said they twice shot Lee with a Taser before he was taken into custody.
Lee initially told the judge he intended to challenge his case but ultimately wanted it to be immediately resolved saying he believed he was in danger of sexual assaults while incarcerated at the county jail.
He pleaded no contest to all counts. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio imposed terms of the negotiated deal that called for Lee to serve 5 to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Lee had no prior convictions in Pennsylvania but had a lengthy criminal record that included offenses in six other states.
