Breckenridge Texan

By Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan

A Breckenridge man is in the Stephens County Jail on a $250,000 bond after crashing a pickup truck, which he allegedly stole Sunday evening, July 18, in an attempt to evade arrest for a sexual assault he had reportedly committed a few minutes earlier.

Larry Wayne Foster, Jr.

Larry Wayne Foster, Jr., of Breckenridge was taken into custody by a Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden and a Stephens County deputy following the crash on FM 578 near the Hubbard Creek Bridge. Justice of the Peace Steve Spoon arraigned Foster Tuesday afternoon, July 20, and set the bond on the charge of aggravated sexual assault. More charges may be filed later.

The Assault

According to Breckenridge Police Chief Bacel Cantrell, police received several calls from local residents at 7:19 p.m. on Sunday night, reporting that a female was being sexually assaulted in the 900 block of East Elm Street. BPD Officer Bryce Bufkin and Sgt. Scott Gabriel immediately responded to the scene.

Cantrell said multiple witnesses had come up on the scene and the man then took off on foot. One of the witnesses told the police that he saw some movement going on that didn’t look right and when he drove up, he saw the suspect was sexually assaulting the victim.

“He (the suspect) got up and took off,” Cantrell said. “You know, if someone starts hollering ‘What’s going on?’ a lot of people get involved. I think a couple people were circling the area trying to find the suspect after the first witness ran him off.”

According to the complaint and affidavit filed with Spoon, the victim told the police that Foster threw her onto the concrete sidewalk several times before sexually assaulting her. She told the police that he did not have her consent to touch her in a sexual manner and that he covered her face during the assault.

She sustained head injuries and said she thought he was going to kill her while he was hitting her head on the sidewalk, according to the report.

The victim was transported to the hospital to be treated for her injuries.

The Pursuit and Arrest

At about the same time as the sexual assault calls, the BPD also received a report of a pickup being stolen in the same area.

“At that point we just assumed that call was related because the guy took off running on foot from witnesses that (had) showed up,” Cantrell said. “I mean it was just a short time later that truck was stolen. And that’s just two blocks away.”

According to the complaint and affidavit filed with Spoon, witnesses on the scene saw a white pickup leave the area at a high rate of speed, and the witnesses started following the pickup. They reportedly stopped following the truck and returned to the scene of the assault to check on the victim when they saw that a game warden had spotted the truck and was also following it.

Cantrell said that a few minutes after the police broadcast a description of the stolen truck over the radio, the truck was observed by Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden Clif Westbrook. Cantrell said Westbrook was not in an official pursuit of the truck at that time but was following it while he tried to determine if it was the stolen truck. While Westbrook was following the vehicle, which was heading north on FM 578 (Crystal Falls Highway), the driver lost control and flipped the truck on a curve just north of the bridge over Hubbard Creek about six miles north of intersection with U.S. Highway 183 North, the complaint states.

According to Stephens County Sheriff Kevin Roach, who responded to the scene of the accident where Foster was arrested, when Westbrook drove up on the scene, the driver was no longer in the vehicle but was walking down a bar ditch, headed back toward the wrecked vehicle. He said when Westbrook tried arrest the driver, he resisted and Westbrook used pepper spray to subdue him.

Then, Stephens County Deputy John Green arrived on the scene and assisted Westbrook in handcuffing Foster, Roach said.  AMR ambulance service and the Breckenridge Fire Department responded to the scene of the crash.

Foster was transported to Stephens Memorial Hospital by ambulance because he was reporting injuries he received from the accident, Roach said. Once he was treated and released from the hospital, he was turned over to Gabriel, who booked him in the Stephens County Jail.

Larry Wayne Foster, Jr., who has been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault, reportedly crashed a stolen pickup just north of the bridge over Hubbard Creek on FM 578. He was arrested on the scene by a Stephens County Deputy and a Texas Game Warden. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Cutline, top photo: Orange cones mark the site of a vehicle crash on FM 578 just south of Crystal Falls. According to police reports, Larry Wayne Foster, Jr., wrecked a pickup truck, which had been reported as stolen, while allegedly fleeing the scene of a sexual assault in Breckenridge. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Photo of Larry Wayne Foster, Jr., provided by the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office from an arrest earlier this year.