SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A man suspected in a Louisiana killing faces charges in Utah after police say he held a toddler hostage in a car on a southern Utah highway.
Prosecutors on Tuesday filed charges, including aggravated kidnapping and theft, against Zeland Adams, 28.
He surrendered and safely released the boy about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, police said. The five-hour standoff snarled traffic in both directions on Interstate 15.
Adams’ attorney Jack Burns did not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Louisiana authorities say they had been seeking him on an arrest warrant in the murder of 27-year-old Quincy Wafer of Kent, Wash.
Authorities could first bring Adams to Louisiana to face murder charges before trying him in Utah, said Utah courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer. It’s unclear whether they have already ordered him to return.
Officials say Wafer was shot and burned before he was left near a motel in Louisiana’s northeastern city of Tallulah.
Police have arrested three other suspects in Tacoma, Wash., and San Antonio, Texas, in connection with Wafer’s death.
Authorities believe the men have ties to a Mexican drug cartel and killed Wafer after he stole drugs.
In Utah, Adams was jailed in Iron County on suspicion of fleeing from a traffic stop and leading officers on a high-speed chase that reached speeds of 130 mph. The car hit a pickup truck during the chase, but no injuries were reported.
Police said Adams locked himself in the car and threatened to harm the 2-year-old.
Negotiators eventually talked Adams into surrendering after he called family members from multiple cellphones, telling them he was willing to shoot at police, Utah Highway Patrol Capt. Barton Blair said.
Earlier, police had stopped the vehicle at a Cedar City gas station along Interstate 15, where Adams, sitting in a back seat, produced a false driver’s license, Blair said. The child’s mother, a 24-year-old woman from Fresno, Calif., was driving at the time.
Adams is accused of driving off with the boy after a later stop, leaving the woman and a 30-year-old California man behind. It’s unclear how the three adults knew each other, Blair said, and the two California residents are not suspected in Wafer’s death. They are unlikely to face charges related to the standoff, he said.
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