Agents Arrest Second Kehoe Cheyne’s Brother Chevie Nabbed Near Utah Ranch

One day after the arrest of his brother, authorities Tuesday captured Chevie Kehoe near a south ern Utah cattle ranch where he and Cheyne had hid with their families for the past month.

Federal agents and local police said they arrested the 24-year-old fugitive about noon at a feed store in Cedar City. He went there with the ranch owner to buy seed.

Cheyne Kehoe, 21, turned himself in Monday to sheriff’s deputies in Colville.

A woman whose family helped the brothers said Tuesday she had no idea they were harboring fugitives considered armed and dangerous.

“Heavens no, we didn’t know,” said Laree Orton, whose father owns the ranch near Gunlock, Utah, about 40 miles southwest of Cedar City. “It came as a real shock.”

The former Colville residents are accused of engaging in two highly publicized February shootouts with law enforcement officers in Ohio.

One of the gunbattles was filmed by a video camera in a state trooper’s car. It shows a man thought to be Cheyne Kehoe exchanging fire with a trooper who pulled over a vehicle in Wilmington.

The shooter then ran away while another man, believed to be Chevie Kehoe, drove away in a Chevrolet Suburban. That man is suspected of firing 37 rounds from an assault rifle at law enforcement officers who tried to stop him about five minutes after the first shootout.

FBI agents in Utah said Chevie Kehoe was taken into custody without incident.

His arrest ended a four-month manhunt for the brothers, who authorities say fled across the country.

In March, FBI agents searched a motor home north of Casper, Wyo., that authorities suspect was abandoned by the Kehoes.

There were no other sightings of the brothers until Cheyne Kehoe surrendered Monday morning.

Orton said the Kehoes spent the last month working on her father’s cattle and alfalfa ranch in Gunlock, a small town in a sparsely populated area not far from the Utah-Nevada-Arizona border.

Rodney Leavitt “found them out in the hills” a few days before Mother’s Day and took pity on the families, who appeared tired and hungry, his daughter said.

The brothers were traveling with their wives and four small children and were camping on an isolated part of the ranch, she said.

“All we knew was they were going hungry, and they had a lot of little kids,” Orton said in a telephone interview. “We’re not the kind of people to let that go on.”

Orton said her father offered to let the Kehoes, who were using fake names, do chores on his ranch in exchange for food and shelter.

The two men were grateful and very polite, she said. “You couldn’t ask for better-appearing young men. They were very prideful young men.”

Leavitt was in Cedar City being questioned by authorities and was unavailable for comment.

His daughter said Cheyne Kehoe left the ranch with his wife and child a few days ago, and that the Leavitt family hadn’t heard from them since. Orton asked that Kehoe’s wife, Tanna, call her collect. “We’ve been so worried,” the woman said.

Nearly 3-1/2 hours after his brother’s arrest, Cheyne Kehoe appeared before a court commissioner in Spokane County District Court.

Commissioner Virginia Rockwood told him he was wanted in Ohio on an indictment that charges him with two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer as well as 14 other charges.

Wearing jail-issue blue coverall pants and a white shirt, Cheyne Kehoe appeared relaxed during his hearing, answering Rockwood with a “Yes, ma’am” or “No, ma’am.”

He told her he had a job lined up in the Stevens County town of Springdale, should he make bail.

“I am unemployed at this point, but I do have a gentleman willing to give me the opportunity to do mechanical work,” Kehoe said.

Rockwood set bail at $1 million, eliciting a scoff from Kehoe.

FBI agents took Chevie Kehoe to Salt Lake City, where he is expected to make an initial appearance before a federal magistrate today.

He faces numerous felony charges in Ohio, including two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.

In addition, he has outstanding federal warrants for possessing stolen firearms and receiving/possessing unregistered firearms.

He is accused of possessing a pistol and a rifle that belonged to an Arkansas gun dealer who was killed last year along with his wife and daughter.

Both men are likely to be extradited to Ohio in the near future. Cheyne Kehoe refused to sign an extradition waiver Tuesday.

That means Ohio authorities will have to get a governor’s warrant to force him to return. Spokane County can hold him for 90 days on the fugitive charge.

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