Guilty pleas, prison sentence in Hunt County vehicle theft, chase
Oct. 19—A Hunt County man has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges.
David Anthony Piepenburg was indicted in August by the Hunt County grand jury in connection with a July incident where he lead Hunt County law enforcement agencies on a search following a high speed chase and stolen vehicle.
Piepenburg, 40, of Quinlan received two indictments for evading arrest with a motor vehicle and one indictment for unauthorized use of a vehicle. One of the evading arrest cases was alleged to have occurred June 16 and one on July 15, with the count of unauthorized use of a vehicle also alleged to have occurred on July 15, the day Piepenburg was taken into custody.
Piepenburg was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictments Monday, with jury trials scheduled to begin in the 196th District Court on previous charges of tampering with/fabricating physical evidence and prohibited substance in a correctional facility.
Instead, Piepenburg pleaded guilty to all of the counts. Under a plea bargain arrangement, Judge Andrew Bench sentenced Piepenburg to 10 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in each case, with the sentences to run concurrently.
The Hunt County Sheriff's Office reported that at about 9 a.m. July 14 multiple agencies attempted to stop a black Kia occupied by Piepenburg. Piepenburg led officers through the Commerce area and then onto Interstate 30 and through the grass median at speeds up to 120 mph, eventually stopping in the middle of the 2600 block of the interstate, where he exited the vehicle and fled on foot into a wooded area. Piepenburg then stole a truck with a trailer attached and continued to evade officers. While Piepenburg was fleeing, items from the trailer were falling onto areas along the route. Officers were reported to have lost sight of the truck due to heavy traffic and debris in the roadway, later locating the unoccupied truck and trailer at the intersection of Stanford and St. John streets in Greenville.
The Kia Piepenburg was driving was occupied by a passenger who was arrested on scene on charges of possession of marijuana and fraud use/poss of ID info.
