South Bend man admits to fatal crash following police chase, still faces murder charge
A man who hit and killed another driver during a high-speed police chase pleaded guilty Tuesday in one of his multiple pending criminal cases and could spend up to 10 years in prison.
The fatal crash occurred in February 2020, when 22-year-old Travis Logan was speeding west on McKinley Avenue and hit a car driven by 58-year-old John Riedle in the intersection of McKinley and Byrkit. Riedle was killed and a passenger in his car, Laszlo Nemeth, also 58, was seriously injured.
Logan ran from the scene of the crash, though four passengers in his car were arrested, but he was eventually apprehended around two weeks later and charged with four felonies. On Tuesday, Logan admitted to two felony counts of resisting law enforcement in a plea agreement that stipulates he can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years on those offenses.
In exchange, prosecutors are dismissing two counts of leaving the scene of a crash, as well as a separate resisting arrest case against Logan, who has accumulated a patchwork of criminal cases since the collision. Most notably, Logan was charged with murder in October for a robbery in South Bend that turned into a fatal shooting, per court documents.
As he conditionally accepted Logan’s plea deal Tuesday, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha indicated Logan and prosecutors had tried to come to a universal agreement that would resolve all of Logan’s pending cases, but the parties couldn’t reach terms on the murder count, and so those proceedings remain ongoing.
More South Bend news:Organization awards $40 million in state grants to improve region's quality of place
Police chase
Logan was first arrested and charged in connection to the Feb. 7, 2020 fatal crash in Mishawaka between Logan’s Jeep and Riedle’s Toyota Camry. According to Indiana State Police at the time, troopers first began pursuing the Jeep on the U.S. 20 Bypass because it was traveling at 99 miles per hour. The Jeep, which troopers soon learned was stolen, led police on a high-speed chase through Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, with speeds ranging from 45 miles per hour to “upwards of 100,” according to police.
Police vehicles pulled back as Logan began driving through intersections on McKinley, eventually running a red light and hitting Riedle at the intersection of McKinley and Byrkit.
Court documents say Logan got out of the car and was able to elude police in the immediate aftermath of the crash, though the other four people in the car were arrested and three of them have pleaded guilty to unrelated felony counts.
Logan was arrested later that month by the St. Joseph County Airport Authority when he was caught trying to steal a car in the airport’s parking lot. He eventually pleaded guilty to that charge.
Trending now:South Bend finalizing deal on downtown headquarters. Here's when school offices will move.
Murder charge
Earlier this year, Logan was accused of an October murder on Lake Street in South Bend in which Sa’Sha Agnew was killed during a robbery. Logan was charged in March after DNA evidence allegedly linked him to a pair of glasses and a gun found near Agnew’s body.
Logan was arrested for that case in early April after St. Joseph County police surrounded a hotel room in Roseland where he was staying.
Another man, 19-year-old Tobias Shaw, is also charged with murder in connection to Agnew’s death.
Logan will be in court for a procedural hearing in the murder case next week, while he is scheduled to be sentenced for the convictions stemming from the fatal crash in late October. If he is convicted of murder, it will be up to the judge in that case whether any sentence will run concurrently or consecutively to the one relating to the fatal crash.
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend man admits causing fatal crash, still faces murder charge
