High-speed chase suspect has extensive criminal record.

Rice

High-speed chase suspect has extensive criminal record.

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor

MASON COUNTY — The 25-year-old Shelby man arrested by Mason County sheriff’s deputies on charges of fleeing and eluding, methamphetamine possession, reckless driving, driving while license suspended and fourth-offense habitual offender following a high speed chase Wednesday night, Dec. 14, has an extensive criminal record.

Steven Geno Rice III is scheduled for arraignment in Mason County’s 79th District Court on his recent charges.

Rice allegedly fled from Mason County sheriff’s deputies in a 2008 Ford Edge with speeds reaching nearly 100 mph, according to Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole. The pursuit traveled through Hamlin, Victory and Pere Marquette townships and covered numerous roads, said the sheriff. After police deployed ‘stop sticks,’ Rice allegedly fled on foot into the woods, where he was captured following a short foot chase.

Rice is no stranger to the penal system. He was sentenced in 2014 to 10 months in jail in Oceana County’s 27th Circuit Court after stealing a car that he and a juvenile were caught doing donuts with shortly after the theft. Rice was sentenced in 2016 to 20 months to seven and a half years in prison in Oceana County’s 27th Circuit Court for a conviction of receiving and concealing stolen property valued at over $1,000. He was sentenced in Mason County’s 51st Circuit Court in 2016 to a concurrent prison term of 20 months to 15 years for a conviction of breaking and entering. 

Last May, he was convicted in Oceana County of possession of firearms by a felon and fourth-offense habitual offender and was sentenced in July to six months in jail. In a separate case, Rice pleaded “no contest” to larceny in a building and was found guilty by the court of fourth-offense habitual offender. He was sentenced to a consecutive term July 18, 2022 of six months in jail.

Rice remains lodged in the Mason County Jail. 

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