SIDNEY — The courtroom was on edge Friday morning as the man who endangered lives during the night of Oct. 24, 2016, was sentenced to 22 years and 11 months in prison.
Travis Wickline, 28, of Charleston, West Virginia, was given consecutive sentences for one count of felonious assault (10 years) with a specification (3 years), having weapons under disability (2 and a half years), failure to comply with the order of a police officer (3 years), and grand theft auto (1 year and 5 months) with a specification (3 years).
Several other counts against him were dismissed as part of a plea agreement he entered in to on Wednesday.
Shelby County Common Pleas Court Judge James Stevenson ordered no fine due to the length of incarceration, but ordered him to pay $6,415.22 in restitution. He will have to complete five years of mandatory probation upon release from prison, and he was given 74 days of credit for time served in the county jail.
Right after his sentencing, Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies took him straight to authorities in West Virginia. He has a felony warrant out for his arrest in the state for aggravated assault with a weapon.
In court Friday, Wickline apologized. “I would like to apologize to my family and my girl. I love them. I have nothing else to say.”
In the late hours of Monday, Oct. 24, Wickline carjacked a women by yielding a firearm in the Hidden Valley Trailer Park, and then fled the area.
As deputies were responding to the call, the stolen vehicle was spotted on state Route 29. As a Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a felony traffic stop and ordered the driver to show his hands and open the car door, Wickline exited the vehicle and fired six shots at the Deputy. The Deputy returned fire, shooting at the vehicle three times.
Wickline then fled in the stolen vehicle. The pursuit continued with three Deputies trying to stop the vehicle, at times reaching speeds in excess of 100 mph. Wickline returned to Hidden Valley Trailer Park, where his vehicle struck a cruiser, disabling it, sending that Deputy to the hospital.
Wickline then left the trailer park and while on state Route 29, he stopped and let a female companion out of the vehicle. The female, identified as Ashley Wayson, 31, of Charleston, West Virginia, was arrested.
Wickline continued westbound on state Route 29 where he turned around, went off the south side of the road, and purposely drove into the woods. He then fled the area on foot.
He then lead law enforcement on a manhunt where K-9s and a helicopter were used.
After interviewing Wayson they were able to obtain enough information to identify Wickline as the driver of the vehicle and that Wayson and Wickline had been staying with Wickline’s parents in Hidden Valley Trailer Park. Contact was made at the residence and Wickline was arrested without incident around 4 a.m. the next morning.
Wayson was charged with one count of obstructing justice, a third-degree felony. She entered a plea on Wednesday to an amended count of attempted obstruction of justice. This carries a maximum prison term of 18 months, and a $500 fine, neither of which is presumed. No sentencing for Wayson had been set at this time.
