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Show Sheriff Captures Rape Suspect At Gunpoint PANGUITCH Garfield County Sheriff Than Cooper arrested ar-rested an Arizona rape suspect Thursday on South Main Street in Panguitch after drawing his gun and ordering the fleeing man to stop. David Varela, 31, is being held in Garfield County Jail on $100,000 bail after refusing to waive extradition to Arizona where he is charged with several felony counts in connection with the alleged al-leged rape of a Flagstaff area woman at gunpoint on April 2. Arizona felony charges against Varela include two for sexual assaultrape, as-saultrape, two sexual abuse, kid-napping.burglary, kid-napping.burglary, aggravated assault, as-sault, armed robbery and stolen vehicle. ve-hicle. Cooper spotted Varela in the stolen 1983 green Suburu early Thursday afternoon and pulled him over. As Cooper was arresting Varela, the suspect swung at him and bolted. Cooper chased him . about 70 feet and pulled his gun, ordering him to stop. A dispatcher called for backup for Cooper and in less than three minutes, Panguitch police officer Kevin Moore arrived at the scene. A woman passerby who witnessed wit-nessed the incident stopped in the nearby sheriffs office and reported it, saying that the man Sheriff Cooper had his gun on had been following her as she shopped in stores throughout Panguitch earlier in the day. She said she had left the city headed toward Panguitch Lake when Varela, who had followed her, tried to cut her off. She turned around and he turned around and followed fol-lowed her. They were both headed back for Panguitch when Cooper, driving to-ward Panguitch Lake on a tip from a lake resident, spotted Varela's car and stopped him. Varela had apparently been camped on a ridge west of Panguitch Pangui-tch for two nights before being arrested ar-rested on Thursday. Cooper had begun looking for Varela after two Panguitch Search and Rescue members mem-bers reported finding duffel bags with clothing and other items on Utah highway 143 on Wednesday near Panguitch Lake. Before Cooper could reach the items, others who had seen them ' and picked them up turned them in to the sheriffs office in Panguitch where evening dispatcher Joann Or-ton Or-ton began an inventory. In a fol-lowup fol-lowup check on the items, she was able to establish that they appeared to be associated with a Tuesday rape in Flagstaff. When Sheriff Cooper came in on Thursday, he contacted the Coconino Co-conino County sheriff for details and began the search for Varela in the Panguitch Lake area, contacting residents there. Deputies confiscated a 30.30 and a .22 caliber rifle from the front seat of the stolen vehicle and another an-other .22 caliber rifle from one of three campsites west of Panguitch that Varela had used. All met the description of stolen rifles. Two Coconino County, Ariz, detectives, Paul Ferroni and Mike Rice and Coconino County, Ariz. Deputy County Attorney Camille Bibles arrived on Thursday night. The detectives talked with Varela and Bibles conferred with Garfield County Attorney Wallace Lee. Varela appeared before Sixth District Court Judge Don Tibbs on Friday where Lee presented the charges against the suspect. Judge Tibbs set bail and ordered Varela held for up to 30 days pending possible pos-sible extradition arrangements between be-tween Arizona and Utah states. Judge Tibbs appointed Public Defender De-fender Floyd Holm to represent Varela. Lee said he anticipates a writ of habeus corpus from Holm requiring the county to prove they have arrested the right person, a common procedure in extradition situations. ""W "Hm'J'W """" -. r , mi 9 wiiuw.,., ' , --y" ' ' ' , x " ; I - . ,. , a - . t " V - ... ,.-r t - y&i ' ! -- - - , - ' 1 ... . '- - mmtf " " . - ' .,.wm . f j. '"'( ; " i -V '. ' ' : iff., i: ' i ' ... . Garfield County Sheriff Than Cooper and Coconino Co-conino County, Ariz., Detective Paul Ferroni search 1983 Suburu stolen from Arizona rape victim for clues that may link suspect to crime. |