A 28-year-old man admitted Friday to stealing an Austin police car in rural Lyle and driving the squad during a high-speed chase with Mower County deputies into Iowa.
Jeremy Ashley Winkel, of Austin, pleaded guilty to single felony counts of motor-vehicle theft and fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, Mower District Court records show.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will dismiss other counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and theft.
Judge Donald E. Rysavy reduced Winkel's conditional bail to $5,000 -- which includes a condition that Winkel not drive any motor vehicles -- and ordered a presentence investigation.
Sentencing is set for March 18.
According to the criminal complaint, Winkel stole the squad car of an Austin officer who had responded to a rural Lyle residence to use a police dog to search for Winkel after he allegedly threatened a relative with a knife.
While searching, the officer and a deputy heard Winkel talking on the law-enforcement radio. A dispatcher told them the voice was coming from the Austin officer's squad car.
"What do you intend to do with Jeremy Winkel -- take him to the hospital or jail?" said the unknown man -- later determined to be Winkel -- over the radio.
Deputies found Winkel driving the squad, leading to a roughly 38-mile chase in Minnesota and Iowa that reached speeds of 120 mph, including on U.S. 218, before Winkel arranged to surrender in Northwood, Iowa, according to the complaint and police report.
At one point during the chase, Winkel did a U-turn on U.S. 218 near St. Ansgar, Iowa, and collided with a Mower County deputy's squad car, causing damage to both vehicles, according to the police report.
Three Mower County deputy squads pursued Winkel in the stolen police car