23-Year-Old Man Facing 15 Charges, Including Carjacking, Following 140 MPH Chase and Crash at SR100

Malachi Emmanuel Rogers, 23, was released from state prison last Christmas Day after serving 15 months for stealing a car and illegally carrying a gun. Sunday morning he was speeding south on I-95 at 101 miles per hour when he passed a pair of Florida Highway Patrol troopers sitting in wait near Matanzas Woods Parkway.

A few hours later, Rogers was at the Flagler County jail facing 15 criminal charges, six of them felonies, one of them a first-degree felony charge of carjacking, and another a second-degree felony charge of fleeing police with wanton disregard for others’ safety, “cutting off other drivers, and forcing them to take evasive actions,” according to FHP.

The trooper caught up and got immediately behind Rogers, police lights flashing. Rogers allegedly ignored the trooper, “reaching speeds well over 140 mph,” according to his arrest report. (Unlike FHP, it is Flagler County Sheriff’s Office policy not to chase at the risk of endangering other drivers or pedestrians in most circumstances.)

Still speeding, Rogers took the off-ramp at State Road 100, failed to negotiate the turn east onto 100, continued straight into the curb on the southwest side of the intersection and crashing into the overpass wall and a light pole support.

Rogers jumped out of the BMW SUV he was driving (without a license, as authorities later discovered) and ran onto the southbound ramp. A black Chevy SUV had pulled over on the shoulder, a few hundred feet from the crash site. Rogers approached the driver’s side of the Chevy and attempted several times to open the door, terrifying the 43-year-old woman at the wheel of the Chevy.

The woman began driving off, only for Rogers to jump on the hood of the Chevy. An FHP trooper then “held him at taser point,” ending the confrontation and taking Rogers into custody.

The victim in the Chevy “was visibly shaken up and greatly upset at what had just occurred,” the trooper’s report states. “I was able to console and calm the victim and shortly thereafter, family members arrived on scene and were able to calm her down further. … The victim reasonably believed that Mr. Rogers was in the course of actively attempting to carjack her and deprive her of her vehicle as he was pulling on the driver side door handle and attempting to gain entry.”

Rogers did not identify himself to authorities, asking them instead to call his mother, which they did not do. He was identified at AdventHealth Palm Coast, where he was taken by ambulance for treatment, with a sheriff’s deputy riding in the ambulance. A law enforcement database indicated he was wanted in Volusia County on a warrant for indecent exposure. He had a small bag of marijuana on him. He had a handgun on the floorboard of the car he had been driving. As a convicted felon, he is prohibited from carrying weapons.

At the hospital, a trooper determined Rogers was under the influence of marijuana. There was no field sobriety testing as he was considered a flight risk. He was discharged from the hospital and booked at the Flagler County jail on $108,500 on 13 of the 15 charges, and on no bond on the carjacking and illegal possession of a weapon charges. It is not clear why FHP charged Rogers with carjacking, as opposed to attempted carjacking. It will be up to the State Attorney’s office to sort out the actual charges to be filed in court. His arrest documentation lists his home as being in South Daytona as well as Orlando.