Fugitive Charged With Kidnapping Girlfriend, Fleeing Cops Across NJ

An Ocean County grand jury handed up an indictment against a Connecticut man who kidnapped and threatened to kill his girlfriend amid an hours-long police chase that stretched from one end of the state to the other and involved a shootout with police.

Miguel Angel Villegas, 29, of New Haven, CT, was arrested Nov. 21 at New York Penn Station, nearly 10 hours after leading police on a chase from a traffic stop in Tuckerton.

Prosecutors said Villegas forced his then-girlfriend to drive him from Connecticut, where he was wanted on criminal charges, to New Jersey.

Tuckerton cops pulled over the car mid morning. Villegas threatened his girlfriend and ordered her to provide police with a fake name, prosecutors said. Villegas then forced his girlfriend at gunpoint to speed away.

The vehicle then crashed into another car, injuring the other driver. Villegas got out, fired his weapon at officers and ran away.

Authorities at the time said that Vilegas may have hailed a ride to the NJ Transit train station in Union Township in Union County and then wound up outside New York Penn Station, where NYPD officers arrested him.

He was indicted this week on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, weapons offenses, eluding, burglary, aggravated assault, hindering apprehension and resisting arrest.