A woman was with her 4-year-old son when she breached a U.S. Space Force base and stole a man’s car, resulting in a high-speed chase in two Central Florida counties, according to authorities.
Krishna Jade Janosky, 29, of Cocoa, broke into Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County, damaging the base’s flightline gate in February, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a June 28 news release.
Now Janosky is charged in federal court with unauthorized entry onto a military installation, grand theft auto, fleeing and eluding law enforcement, and damaging government property, federal prosecutors announced.
Information regarding her legal representation wasn’t immediately available July 1.
The breach
On Feb. 7, Janosky rammed into Patrick Space Force Base’s gate with her car and entered the military installation while driving with her child, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Indian River County.
Janosky didn’t have the credentials to be on the base, prosecutors said.
On the grounds of the facility, she exited her car, grabbed her son and then entered a man’s vehicle as he was sitting in the driver’s seat, according to the affidavit.
Janosky placed her child in the back seat of the man’s car and he got out of his vehicle upon request by base personnel, the affidavit says.
Then Janosky “jumped into the driver seat and fled with (his) vehicle,” the affidavit says.
The chase ends in arrest
In the man’s car, Janosky led Brevard County deputies on a chase into the neighboring Indian River County, where the county’s deputies joined the pursuit, according to the affidavit.
One Indian River County deputy was able to completely stop Janosky after deputies deployed two sets of “stop sticks,” the affidavit says.
Afterward, Janosky’s son “was removed from the vehicle and watched by additional deputies until a family member could respond for him,” an arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit.
Janosky then told one deputy, “I know what I did was wrong,” the affidavit says.
After her arrest, Janosky said that she was at a hotel with her son before she arrived at Patrick Space Force Base, according to the affidavit.
She told a deputy that veterans were at the hotel and she “was fearful of them not knowing if they were there to help her or not,” the affidavit says.
Janosky said she left the hotel and followed a car once she arrived at Patrick Space Force Base, according to the affidavit.
Once on the base, “she was then directed to pull over and, fearful of what ‘they’ were going to do, she got into the man’s vehicle,” the affidavit says.
Janosky said she didn’t know the driver of the vehicle she’s accused of carjacking and that she didn’t pull over for deputies during the chase out of fear, according to the affidavit.
In Indian River County, she was charged with felony fleeing and eluding, grand theft auto, child neglect without great bodily harm, records show.
The state case against Janosky was closed on June 28, according to court records, when the U.S. attorney’s office announced Janosky’s federal indictment.
Public defender Shannon Haugen, who represented Janosky in state court, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 1.
Janosky is accused of causing more than $1,000 worth of damage to Patrick Space Force Base’s flightline gate on Feb. 7, according to her indictment.
The base is the only Space Force installation located in the eastern U.S. Out west, two Space Force bases are located in California and three in Colorado.
If Janosky is convicted on all counts, she “faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison,” prosecutors said.
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