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Man who jumped bail twice in Eagle County to flee to Texas sentenced to Colorado prison

Zachary Rozelle is sentenced to 18 months Monday

Zachary Rozelle had to be fetched from Texas twice after jumping bail. He was returned Eagle County and sentenced Monday to 18 months in a Colorado prison.
Special to the Daily

EAGLE — Zachary Rozelle’s next van ride won’t take as long.

Rozelle had to be fetched from Texas — twice — where Keith Hawkins, his Eagle County bondsman, found him doing all kinds of things including dodging felony warrants. For both trips, the private prisoner transport company’s sojourn took around three weeks.

His next van ride will be much less arduous. Rozelle was sentenced Monday to 18 months in a Colorado prison.



Heroin and Bimbo’s Bar

It was January 2018 when Vail police spotted Rozelle behind a Vail Village store. They immediately noticed he was impaired, prosecutors said during Monday’s hearing.

A quick search of his truck uncovered 8 grams of heroin.

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He was arrested, booked and was bailed out. He jumped bail and headed to Texas, where he was arrested and spent three weeks in a van trekking from the Lone Star State to the Centennial State.

The private security companies that transfer prisoners tend to take circuitous routes. Hawkins explained that from Texas, the company might take three weeks and stop by Arkansas to pick up a prisoner, swing down to Oklahoma to drop one off and then head to Colorado … all with prisoners like Rozelle along for the ride in the company’s van. The prisoners stay in jails along the way.

Rozelle apparently did not mind his first ride that much. He jumped bail again and headed back to Texas, which made him a fugitive from Eagle County … again.

Rozelle’s court-appointed defense attorney said Rozelle could not afford to stay in the Vail Valley and decided to return to Texas to help support his pregnant wife.

Hawkins tracked him to Bimbo’s Beer & Bar BQ, a biker bar outside Houston.

Law enforcement officials in the Houston area loaded Rozelle into another prisoner transport van for a second circuitous trip from Houston to Eagle County.

Rozelle was one of Hawkins’ bond clients. When someone jumps bail and bolts, the bonding company tracks them down and pays to have them brought back.

“We do all this at zero cost to the taxpayer,” Hawkins said.

It was not zero cost to Hawkins, though. He had to pay the $1,200 transport fee for Rozelle’s latest sojourn.

It’s not zero cost to Rozelle, either. District Court Judge Russell Granger ordered him Monday to pay $2,431.15 in restitution, most to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.


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