ST. GEORGE — A Hurricane man who is required to register on the state’s kidnapping website is being held without bail. A suspicious person call ended with officers on a chase over fences and through a number of backyards until they caught up with the suspect and arrested him.
Officers responded early Tuesday to Vernon Worthen Park on East 300 South on a disorderly call, according to the affidavit filed in support of the arrest. A suspect had reportedly passed by two individuals, and then circled back around and grabbed onto the back of the pickup truck as one of the party was trying to leave.
Police say the suspect started yelling at them, stating the complainant “should have let him take the vehicle for a ride,” and then the suspect got in the caller’s face.
After “frightening the citizen,” the officer noted, the suspect left the park heading east on foot. Shortly thereafter, a man matching the suspect’s description was spotted by police at the bus stop about a block away.
As the patrol vehicle approached, the suspect ducked behind the park bench, and when the officer stopped and called out to the suspect, the report states the man responded by hopping over a brick retaining wall into the backyard of a residence, followed by the officer.
When asked what he was doing, the suspect said he was “looking for his glasses.” The suspect jumped another wall and went through a series of backyards until he was confronted by police near the corner of 100 South and 500 East. After multiple commands to stop, police say, the man was detained.
Officers say the suspect Justin Calvin Beshiliggi Christensen, 26, of Hurricane, told them he was staying at a motel in St. George where officers later recovered suspected fentanyl and other substances during a search of the room, the report alleges.
Meanwhile, a background check indicated multiple drug arrests and convictions, the most recent arrest in June. Officers also learned Christensen was listed on the Utah Sex Offender-Kidnap Registry, a requirement that stemmed from a 2019 aggravated kidnapping case that resulted in a conviction on multiple charges.
The case was filed in Carbon County in April 2018, following an incident involving two men who reported they were robbed by the suspect and another individual who started off when one of the suspects asked the complainants for a ride. When they picked up Christensen, the report states, one of the complainants told officers “they had a bad feeling as soon as Justin got into the car,” for the drive back to Wellington.
Christensen eventually exited the car, grabbed a baseball bat from under the seat and reportedly held up the bat and ordered both victims out of the car. When they exited, the suspect went through the vehicle and took several of their belongings
From there, the suspect seized both of their cellphones and ordered the driver to take them back to Price, where the victims were ordered to go to several ATM machines and withdraw cash. When those efforts failed, the suspect took cash from one of the men and left with the property taken from the vehicle, including the baseball bat.
Later that same night, both suspects were located on Carbon Avenue in Price and were arrested and transported to jail. Christiansen was later charged with two first-degree felony charges, including aggravated kidnapping and robbery. He was also charged with two counts of aggravated assault and misdemeanor drug charges.
In January of the following year, the aggravated kidnapping and robbery charges were reduced to two second-degree felonies, while the aggravated assault remained, while the misdemeanor charges were dismissed in exchanged for a guilty plea. Three prison terms, two terms of 1-15 years, and one 0-5 year term in prison were suspended, and instead, the defendant was ordered to serve 160 days in jail and placed on probation. With credit for time served, he was released shortly thereafter.
One year later, the defendant was sentenced on a felony drug case that violated his probation. This resulted in his probation being revoked and he was ordered to serve the original sentence in Utah State Prison on Jan. 27, 2020.
The first of three arrests that took place in St. George was on July 27, 2022, resulted in felony drug charges, followed by an arrest in April that led to the filing of similar charges. The third involved the arrest near the park in St. George early Wednesday morning.
The suspect was booked into jail facing multiple charges, including two third-degree felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, along with five misdemeanor charges for failing to stop at command of law enforcement, criminal trespass, intoxication, possession of paraphernalia and the registry violation.
The case was forwarded to the Washington County Attorney’s Office for review and the suspect remains in custody without bail at this time.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or chrged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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