MAN ARRESTED FOR DRIVING A STOLEN CAR TOO SLOWLY

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- When speeders get stopped on the roadways, it often leads law enforcement officers to other crimes and warrants for arrest.

A Perry County deputy got the same result from a Tennessee man driving too slow.

Deputy Jason Kelley gave this account:

While he was on patrol driving north on Interstate 55 during the wee hours of June 7, Kelley saw a fast-moving vehicle coming up from behind. When the other driver noticed the deputy's car, he hit the brakes hard enough so that the headlights jerked down toward the pavement.

Kelley began to slow down to allow the 1992 Cadillac Eldorado to pass, but it wouldn't. The deputy slowed to 50 miles an hour, then 40, 30, 20. But the Cadillac slowed, too.

Finally Kelley flipped on his emergency lights, pulled to the side of the road and the car passed him. As the deputy started to drive behind the Cadillac, it finally came to a stop.

But before Kelley had time to get out of his patrol car, the other driver had exited his vehicle and was holding his hands in the air. Kelley told him to get back into his car.

When Kelley got out to talk with the driver, who gave his name as Luther Strayhorn, the driver explained that he did not pass the slow-moving patrol car because he was sleepy.

A records check showed that the car with Tennessee license plates was stolen, Kelley reported.

When asked if he knew that the car he was driving was stolen, Strayhorn emphatically said no. The car belonged to his cousin, he said.

As deputies took Strayhorn's fingerprints at the sheriff's office, the driver maintained that he was who he said he was. But a response to the fingerprint query from the FBI showed Strayhorn's real identity was Eddie Raymond Epperson of Humbolt, Tenn.

Epperson has an extensive criminal history, and Kelley was able to arrest him on felony warrants for tampering with a vehicle and four counts of forgery.

He also received summons for driving without a valid license and traveling under 40 miles an hour on the interstate.

"We hardly ever write tickets for slow driving," Sheriff Gary Schaaf said.

Epperson remains in the Perry County jail under a $25,000 bond.