The suspect in a bizarre Maryland kidnapping and car chase will have a psychiatric and medical health examination to determine whether he was criminally responsible and competent to stand trial, according to a court order.
Terron White, 23, is charged with kidnapping, kidnapping a minor, unauthorized removal of property, theft over $1,000 and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. He filed a plea in December that not he is not criminally responsible by reason of insanity and is incompetent to stand trial.
White is being held at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup and will be examined there, court records show.
On July 13, 2011, White forced his way into the car of Elsya Samuels at a gas station in Baltimore. After a struggle between White, Samuels and several others, White gained control of Samuels’ car and drove off with Samuels and her 20-month-old son in the vehicle, according to court documents.
White drove onto Interstate 95 and headed south. Near Laurel, he sideswiped a Maryland State Police cruiser that was on the right shoulder with its emergency lights on, but White drove on. When the trooper took off in pursuit, White turned off the car’s lights, accelerated to more than 100 mph and evaded the trooper, police said.
A Maryland State Police officer on the Capitol Beltway saw the black 1995 Lexus GS300 with damage on its passenger side vary in speed between 60 and 80 mph. The officer followed it and saw that the rear passenger door was ajar and it seemed like the front passenger tried to exit the car, according to the statement.
Around the area of the Beltway and Bradley Boulevard in Montgomery County, the officer pulled next to the car. Samuels looked at the officer, waved her hands out of the window and yelled “help” multiple times, the officer wrote in the statement. The officer then pulled back and saw Samuels’ arm waving out of the window.
The car slowed down to about 10 to 20 mph per hour in the area of River Road. The officer saw the front passenger door open multiple times, and the officer wrote that it seemed like Samuels was trying to jump out of the car.
Shortly after, Samuels, with her child in her arms, fell from the car and rolled on the asphalt, but White continued to drive. He finally stopped once he was boxed in on all sides and was arrested, the statement said.
Samuels and her child were treated at a hospital, then released.
