Phony 911 calls, meth, car chase lead to arrest of convict missing since 2019, feds say

Eric Brooks was so close to freedom.

The former Elk Grove resident had served seven years in federal prison on a methamphetamine charge and in June 2019 moved to home confinement in Lodi, where he was set to be released from custody in October 2019, court records say.

But on July 22, 2019, he took a breath test at a residential re-entry center that came up positive for alcohol, a violation of the terms of his home detention. Rather than submit to a urine test, Brooks left and disappeared, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Sacramento Monday morning charging him with escape from custody.

For the next 19 months, Brooks embarked on an odyssey that took him from Modesto to Stockton and included giving a fake identity to police, phony 911 calls that sent cops rushing to a nightclub and, ultimately, a car chase in Stockton in which he crashed into several police cars, court records say.

Brooks currently is being held in the San Joaquin County jail facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm), resisting arrest and reckless driving, as well as the escape charge, the sheriff’s office said Monday.

Brooks’ troubles began in 2008, when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Sacramento and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess methamphetamine, court records say.

He was originally sentenced to 198 months in prison and sent off to a federal prison in Atlanta, then transferred to a halfway house in Oakland in April 2019 “to begin the process of reintegration,” according to an affidavit filed by Deputy U.S. Marshal Alan Yao with the criminal complaint.

On June 5, 2019, Brooks was allowed to serve out the rest of his time at his home in Lodi, and would have been released from custody in October 2019.

But after the positive alcohol test months before that release date, he skipped town, remaining a fugitive until the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2020, court records say.

That morning, Modesto police pulled over a Cadillac Escalade for failure to display a license plate.

In addition to the driver, who was on probation for domestic violence, two other men were in the car and refused to identify themselves, court records say.

As a Modesto officer was in his patrol car running a check on the Escalade’s driver, police dispatch received a 911 call reporting a shooting at Modesto’s Palladium Nightclub.

”9-1-1 dispatch pinged the phone that had called 9-1-1 to ensure that officers were responding to the correct location,” Yao’s affidavit says. “The ping came back to the location of the traffic stop.

“Shortly thereafter, a second 9-1-1 call was received reporting a man with a gun at the Palladium Nightclub. At this point, the MPD officer returned to the parked Escalade. The officer saw that the backseat passenger was on a call with 9-1-1. The person’s phone was lit up white with red letters indicating 9-1-1.

“The MPD officer asked dispatch to call the first number that called into 9-1-1. Immediately thereafter, a cell phone near the front seat passenger began to ring. The MPD officer then ordered all three men out of the car and called for backup because it appeared that the men had called in a false police emergency and were trying to divert the officer’s attention.”

As the three men were being arrested, five Modesto patrol cars raced to the nightclub nearby to investigate the reports of an active shooter.

“No one with a gun was located,” court records say. “Security personnel at the nightclub had not seen anything suspicious at the nightclub (i.e. a shooting or a man with a gun).”

Police took the three men into custody, and the front seat passenger identified himself as Tomas Antonio Guerrero, court records say.

“Guerrero” was booked, fingerprinted and then released. After he was gone, the results of his fingerprinting came back: the man was really Brooks, court records say.

The man in the back seat was identified as Albert Stanley Jr., court records say, and as he was being searched officers looked inside Stanley’s shoes and “found 4.8 grams of suspected cocaine and a California identification card for Eric Brooks.”

Brooks remained in the wind until last Wednesday afternoon, when Stockton police spotted him driving a black Chevrolet Camaro and followed him to an Arco gas station, where they turned on their lights and siren in an effort to arrest him, court records say.

Brooks sped off, eventually losing control of the Camaro and crashing into a light pole, Yao’s affdavit says.

“Two law enforcement officers, believing that the car had been disabled, approached the vehicle on foot in an attempt to take Brooks into custody,” the affidavit says. “The two officers yelled ‘Police, put your hands up.’

“Brooks did not comply with law enforcement commands. Instead, he reversed his vehicle, nearly striking one of the officers. Brooks then drove away at a high rate of speed.”

Police gave chase again and his car “was eventually pinned in by law enforcement vehicles after Brooks had crashed into several pursuing law enforcement vehicles,” court records say.

He was arrested and a search of the car trunk turned up one pound of methamphetamine and a quarter-pound of heroin, court records say.

This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 11:40 AM.