UPDATE Eluding driver in deadly crash has long criminal history

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The suspect in a wild car chase Sunday that killed two innocent people in Yakima has a history of felony crimes and atttempting to elude police.

Court records show that Shaun Christopher Kollman, 30, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2000 for a series of felonies in King and Snohomish counties, including one conviction for attempting to elude police.

The previous year, in 1999, Kollman had been sentenced to 22 months in prison for a series of convictions in Kittitas County. One was for attempting to elude police.

His record includes convictions for first-degree robbery and first- and second-degree theft, second-degree burglary, malicious mischief and multiple counts of second-degree assault.

Yakima police arrested Kollman at the end of a wild chase Sunday afternoon that included multiple collisions with other motorists, two of whom died. Officers say they believe Kollman was high on cocaine.

Yakima County Coroner Jack Hawkins identified the victims as Pascual E. Ayala, 29, of Tieton, and Marina Barajas, 41, of Yakima.

The chase began at 2:30 p.m. when a patrol officer spotted a pickup truck at Sixth Street and Spruce that had been reported stolen 90 minutes earlier.

The driver ran a stop sign at Third Street and Pacific, colliding in the process with another motorist, then fled on foot into a used car lot nearby. A passenger, meanwhile, was quickly captured after a short foot chase.

The driver then stole a pickup truck from inside a shop on the car lot, blasting through the garage doors and nearly running down an officer in the escape effort.

The chase continued across town, winding over to Washington Avenue and then north on 40th Avenue before ending violently in a crash with a Dodge Neon and a Jeep Wrangler at the intersection of 16th Avenue and Englewood.

Ayala and Barajas were in the Neon.

Hawkins said Ayala and Barajas were dating and that Barajas lived on Cherry Avenue, not far from the scene of the crash. The driver of the Wrangler was not seriously injured.

Police arrested Kollman in a house nearby on 16th Avenue. They said he broke into the unoccupied house after the crash.

Kollman was booked on multiple felony charges, including vehicular homicide in the deaths of Ayala and Barajas.

Police said that during the chase the fleeing driver once backed into a police car on 40th Avenue and sideswiped several motorists, including a car driven by a young mother with her three children at 40th and Tieton Drive.