Oregon Court Finally Nails Elusive Car Thief After Years of Evading Trial Hearings

A man from Vancouver, Washington, who failed to appear in court on three separate occasions for three different crimes was finally convicted of car theft last Wednesday in the Clackamas County Circuit Court.

Stole a Car That Was Left Idling in Parking Lot

On 30 December 2020, Joseph Taylor Letts (28) stole a Toyota Carolla left idling in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Milwaukie while the owner popped inside a shop for a cup of coffee.

He was caught by a Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office deputy about 30 minutes later and was identified as the car thief by a witness,

A trial date was set for June 2021, but Letts was a no-show and managed to evade the law for years until his arrest in Washington’s Kitsap County early in 2024. He was then extradited to Oregon.

A trial date was rescheduled for May but the case was delayed yet again when the owner of the stolen car could not attend the proceedings, in which he was needed as a witness, as he had to travel abroad for a family funeral.

The district attorney was given a continuance until July 2024, and Letts was discharged from jail pending the court case, court records show.

However, on the day the trial was to take place, Letts, once again, was a no-show.

After his discharge from jail in mid-May, court records show that in the same month, he was convicted of third-degree theft from a Clackamas County 7-Eleven that occurred in 2021.

Letts’s capture by the law in July 2024 by Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office deputies for public indecency was short-lived because he once again failed to make an appearance for his court hearing on 13 August.

This resulted in a court-ordered bench warrant and he was arrested and eventually convicted in December 2024.

Letts was held in the Clackamas County Jail without bail until his stolen car trial on Wednesday when he was sentenced to 20 months in prison.