After a day marked by a family dinner at home Aug. 6, a husband and wife made their way to bed in their Highland Avenue home, a Charlottesville prosecutor said in court. As they slept, the wife’s Ford sedan was involved in a police chase and crash after it hit a shed and the roof of a house at Rugby Road and Preston Avenue.
The car was flipped over when police discovered it around 2:30 a.m. Aug. 7, authorities have said, but no one was inside.
Tsaye Simpson, 17, admitted Tuesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court that he took the wheel of the car. Simpson pleaded guilty to hit and run, eluding police, grand larceny and entering a home with the intent to commit larceny.
Simpson, who is being tried as an adult after his case was transferred from the city’s juvenile and domestic relations court, was arrested in mid-October in connection with the theft and wreck.
Elizabeth Killeen, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said in court that someone entered the couple’s home and took the car keys, a purse, cell phone, money and other items. Simpson’s father is a former employee of the couple, Killeen said in court, and Simpson may have been to the house previously.
Authorities have said a police officer tried to pull the car over after radar indicated it was speeding. Killeen said in court that a driver who was stopped at an intersection saw the speeding Ford sedan and the police car following it. Although the man told police that he didn’t hear a crash, he said he saw smoke at the top of the hill at the Rugby-Preston intersection.
Police have said the car hit a shed and clipped the house’s roof before landing nearby. Killeen said in court that the homeowner woke up and heard what he thought was a plane crash. The accident caused $120,000 in damages to the structure and kept the family out of the home for two-and-a-half months during repairs.
Killeen said in court that Simpson called a friend using the stolen cell phone to get a ride after the accident. No evidence was presented Tuesday about whether Simpson was injured in the accident or where he went afterwards.
At the time of the crash, Killeen said in court, Simpson was awaiting disposition in juvenile court for two residential burglaries that happened in the spring. Simpson has been held at the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center since October.
Simpson will turn 18 on April 19, although Killeen and defense attorney Christopher Graham said in court that his first adult birthday shouldn’t impact sentencing options.
He faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison when he is sentenced June 9.
Simpson played football this past season for Charlottesville High School.
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