Onamia man who led officers on garbage truck chase sentenced
LITTLE FALLS - An Onamia man was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison as the result of leading law officers in April on a one-hour, 57-mile chase in which he drove a garbage truck.
Randy Weyaus, 41, was sentenced after being convicted in Morrison County District Court of fleeing from a police officer in a motor vehicle and assault on a police officer.
Randy Weyaus
The chase began in Lastrup and followed a path from Pine Center to Brainerd before finally ending near St. Mathias. Three squad cars were damaged in the chase but no law enforcement officers or citizens were hurt. By the conclusion of the chase most of the garbage truck's tires had been shot out and Weyaus was driving on rims. At one point Weyaus stopped the truck and backed up toward a Morrison County deputy. The deputy was able to avoid a collision at the last minute.
"This is one of the strangest cases I've ever prosecuted," Morrison Assistant County Attorney Todd Kosovich said in a statement. "Every bizarre minute was caught on video from as many as eight different squad car cameras. Deputies shot at the radiator and he kept driving. They laid down stop sticks, he kept on driving."
During the sentencing hearing before Judge Douglas P. Anderson, Weyaus apologized and said he was "very thankful no one was injured."
The initial report of the incident came when Morrison County Sheriff's Department learned of an intoxicated man who was trying to gain entrance into a residence in Lastrup. When deputies arrived Weyaus left driving a garbage truck owned by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.