The Jason Belmer Saga

As I continue gathering my reviews and commentaries onto the Blogger blogs that make up Cinema Steve, I occasionally come across "Golden Oldies," like the tale of Jason Belmer, a guy so bright he tried to escape police in a car that was up on blocks.

Suspect Tries to Flee in 'Lifted' Car

October 4, 2004 04:32 PM EDT

PITTSFIELD, Maine - A drug suspect who eluded capture in Maine and Colorado was captured Monday when he hopped into a car, cranked the engine and went nowhere because the wheels were lifted off the ground for repairs.

Jason Belmer, who is accused of burying cocaine in his grandmother's yard, was caught trying to steal the car, Police Chief Steven Emery said.

"He jumped into the car and started it up and tried to drive away. His big downfall was they had been working on it and it was on jacks," Emery said.

Belmer, 25, had been on the lam since running into the woods after 8 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $380,000, was seized Aug. 19 from his grandmother's property in Corinna.

A Colorado State Patrol trooper stopped a car in which Belmer was a passenger for speeding on Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado in early September. Belmer eluded capture by running into a cornfield. Authorities here were tipped that he had returned to Maine.

The Jason Belmer saga was one of the more popular ones in the "Jailbird Parade" section of a messageboard I ran for a few years. We even had his girlfriend enter herself into the Jailbird Pagent with a string of replies. You can read the original posts here, if you like.

The main (and Main, for that matter) update to the story was this, posted in January of 2005...

Jason Belmer gets 13-year sentence

BANGOR (AP) - A Corinna man has been handed a 13-year prison sentence under a plea agreement that followed his arrest in what police described as one of Maine's largest cocaine seizures.

The 25-year-old Jason Belmer was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison after waiving indictment and pleading guilty to aggravated trafficking in cocaine, criminal restraint, burglary to a motor vehicle and refusing to submit to arrest.

The woman with whom he fled the state was sentenced earlier to time served. Michelle Carmack, 27, of Corinna was sentenced on Nov. 8 to 45 days in jail on charges of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and hindering apprehension.

Carmack and Belmer were stopped on Sept. 4 for speeding on Interstate 70 in Burlington, Colo., a few miles over the Kansas border. Carmack was arrested but Belmer disappeared by running into a cornfield.

Belmer could have received up to 30 years in prison for aggravated trafficking in cocaine if the case went to trial and he were found guilty.

Belmer's 64-year-old grandmother, who owns the property in Corinna where the cocaine was found, has also been charged in the case.

(Michelle Carmack violated the conditions of her parole and was tossed back in the clink during the winter of 2005. She served nine months.)