Robbery Suspect Arrested After Chase in Tennessee

A parolee wanted in a rash of armed robberies and a host of other violent crimes in Ventura County in December was arrested Saturday in Tennessee after a police chase, authorities said.

John David “J.D.” Barnett, 37, was arrested about 2 p.m. after a pursuit on Interstate 40 between Jackson and Memphis, said Bobby Ward, a spokesman for the Haywood County Jail in Tennessee.

Ward said the chase began after a state trooper tried to pull over Barnett’s car. A mechanical problem with the car forced Barnett to stop on the highway but he then fled on foot.

Authorities set up a perimeter and brought in a helicopter to search for the parolee, who was arrested after police found him hiding in a tree, Ward said.

Barnett had been on the run since the mid-December crime spree, police said. He eluded Tennessee authorities several weeks ago when they tried to stop him while allegedly driving a stolen car.

Barnett is the main suspect in five armed robberies, a carjacking and a kidnapping in El Rio, Ventura and Oxnard. In three of the robberies, a man fired a shot into the ceiling and, in one case, a customer was pistol-whipped, police said.

Barnett is also suspected of firing shots at several cars on the Ventura Freeway and raping an Oxnard woman, police said.

A second man, 19-year-old Christopher Pena, was arrested in Oxnard in early January on suspicion of aiding Barnett in three of the armed robberies and the carjacking.