After months of delays, a Blair County Judge yesterday ordered that jury selection will begin next Monday for 29-year-old Eric Hageder of New Florence, who is accused of a multi-county crime spree that covered 68 miles in March of last year.
Hageder was taken into custody on Interstate 99 near Tyrone after he called 911 and threatened to “play demolition derby” with the pursuing police cars at about five o’clock in the morning. The crime spree had begun the day before when he got into an argument with his girlfriend, forced her into his car, and then crashed into a ditch. He’s accused of next robbing Krevestki’s convenience store in Armagh, abandoning his girlfriend and somehow making his way to the Cambria County home of a former girlfriend, whose car he stole. Then he drove to Altoona but the ex-girlfriend’s car broke down, so police say he sneaked up on a man at a Sheetz store, hit him over the head several times with a wrench, and stole his pickup truck. He drove into Huntingdon County as police pursued, then turned the truck around on I-99 and went back into Blair County. He was finally boxed in by a “rolling roadblock” and forced into an embankment after he hit a Tyrone police cruiser.
There are three cases against Hageder. For the police pursuit, he’s charged with six counts each of aggravated assault, simple assault, and recklessly endangering, plus resisting arrest and fleeing or eluding, and 28 summary traffic violations. For the robbery and beating of the man at the Altoona Sheetz store, he’s charged with robbery, theft, aggravated assault, simple assault, receiving stolen property, and harassment. The Indiana County charges, which include robbery, aggravated assault, and theft. That case was transferred to Blair County Court last October. The Cambria County charges were adjudicated in October. Hageder plea bargained to criminal mischief and was sentenced to 6 to 23 months, plus restitution and costs.
