Trent Paschal, Savannah Paschal.Photo: Savannah Paschal Facebook
A Texas man who allegedly killed his 30-year-old wife in 2020 and went on the run after stealing a Chevy Tahoe at knifepoint from a car dealership killed himself as police closed in on him.
On New Year’s Eve, police in Marion County, Fla., got a tip from a 911 call that Paschal had been spotted sleeping in a van at an RV Park, Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez said at a press conference Monday.
Deputies raced to the Holiday Trav-l Park RV Resort in Ocala, where they located Paschal,KTRKreports.
“They tried to make contact with him and heard a gunshot,” Perez said.
After the gun went off, deputies waited to approach him, Perez said.
“Police officers know probably the most dangerous criminal is one who has skipped out on his bond, one that has cut his monitor off, one that has evaded law enforcement right after he gets out of jail,” Perez said.
“So, they didn’t approach for a while. When they did make the approach, they found a white male deceased in the back of the van.”
Trent was pronounced dead at the scene.
Trent was also in possession of two weapons.
Paschal’s suicide is “bittersweet for the family of Savannah,” Andy Kahan, director of victim services and advocacy with Crime Stoppers Houston, said at the press conference.
Savannah’s mother, Shirley Kinchen, thanked the tipster who led law enforcement to Trent.
“Did I want him to be held responsible for his actions? Did I want to look him in the eye and for him to face me again with what he had done? Yes,” she said. “Am I sorry that he longer walks on this earth? No.”
She had told him she didn’t want to live with him anymore.
Before the shooting, Trent allegedly posted a video on YouTube, saying, “I told her not to mess with me, not to mess with my emotions,“KTRK reports.
As part of Trent’s bond release, he was ordered to wear an ankle monitor.
But on April 13, authorities believe he removed the monitor, which failed to send an alert to authorities, KTRK reports.
Free of the ankle monitor, police allege that Trent went to a Houston car dealership and took a black Chevy Tahoe for a test drive, KTRK reports.
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During the drive, he allegedly threatened a salesman at knifepoint and ordered him to leave and stole the vehicle,Click2Houston reports.
Better Monitoring Needed
Kinchen says the system failed her daughter.
Trent’s ankle monitor “was at his mom’s home charging almost 90% of the time,” she said. “I think there needs to be stricter monitoring on the ankle monitors.”
Kahan wants more vigilance when it comes to wrangling suspects who are out on bond.
“The bigger question CrimeStoppers has is, how many other Trent Paschals are out there? How many other bond fugitives — people who have been on bond … and are wanted and remain out there?”
Within in the past year, he said, “there have been six shootouts involving law enforcement officers and wanted felon bond forfeiture defendants,” Kahan said. “That’s just in Harris County.”
“It’s disturbing to us that we do not know how many Trent Paschals are out there,” he said.
source: people.com
