Parolee dodges capture here; arrested elsewhere

A parolee at large wanted for attempted murder in San Francisco escaped capture earlier this month in San Mateo County but his wife was subsequently arrested on numerous charges after police received two calls at about the same time Aug. 5 — one a kidnap claim and the other a report of a car accident on Interstate 280.

California Highway Patrol officers responded to a report of a solo-vehicle crash on Interstate 280 and Bunker Hill Road and found a silver Dodge Avenger unoccupied with both airbags deployed.

Early Sunday morning, Aug. 5, the CHP also received a call at about the same time from the Bunker Hill Road call box on Interstate 280 from a woman claiming she was pushed out of a car after being kidnapped from a San Bruno gas station.

On arrival, CHP officers determined the car was stolen in conjunction with a felony and was registered to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The driver associated with the vehicle was listed as 25-year-old Charles Chatman III, a parolee at large wanted for attempted murder and last arrested in San Francisco in 2008 on a firearms-related charge.

The woman claiming to have been kidnapped, Chardae Chatman, turned out to be the parolee’s wife and failed to cooperate with officers when they arrived at the scene at about 6 a.m., a CHP official said.

San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies also responded to the scene and helped set up a perimeter as they set out searching for the man in the San Mateo Highlands close to the Hillsborough border. Police used a bloodhound to search for Chatman but, after 45 minutes, the scent went cold, the CHP official said.

While Charles Chatman III escaped capture that morning, his wife Chardae, 26, was arrested on several charges including driving without a license, petty theft, possession of a controlled substance, possessing less than an ounce of marijuana and possessing a drug without a prescription.

Four days later, Chatman III was arrested in Contra Costa County on a firearms-related charge, a spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office there told the Daily Journal. There are several Charles Chatmans, however, either in custody or with criminal records in Contra Costa County.

Yesterday, a spokesman with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Alex Bastian, told the Daily Journal that a formal charging decision will be made after prosecutors are done with Chatman III in Contra Costa County.

Chatman III is being sought for a firearms-related incident that occurred in June in San Francisco, Bastian said.

The young couple are no strangers to law enforcement. Chardae — while Chatman III was in jail in San Francisco in 2008 on firearms charges — allegedly impersonated a parole officer and tried to release her husband’s parole hold, according to court documents.

The plan failed, however, and Chatman III was convicted by a jury of conspiring to escape and attempted escape, according to court documents.

In 2009, Chatman III was found hiding under a bed in his wife’s Antioch home after police responded to a disturbance and found Chardae bruised and dressed in a sheet, according to court documents.

Chardae changed her story to Antioch police several times, according to court documents.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by email: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.