Laird fled officers - again in meth trafficking case

Jason Laird, 48, a familiar face to many in Ozark County, was recently arrested in Howell County after, once again, fleeing officers in an  attempt to escape capture and arrest. 

Laird has been the subject of multiple multi-day manhunts for the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department over the years, and he even escaped from a prison work detail in 2021 while serving a prison in the Missouri Department of Corrections, which led to a four-day state-wide manhunt for his re-capture. 

The Howell County Sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that on April 22, its SWAT team joined the West Plains Police Department SRT and Operation Relentless Pursuit Task Force officers in executing an arrest operation and narcotics search warrant at a residence on County Road 4000, on the outer edge of West Plains. The warrant was obtained by South Central Drug Task Force.  

Laird reportedly fled the residence on foot upon spotting the officers. Law enforcement used a drone with thermal imaging capabilities to quickly locate Laird on County Road 4010, where he was arrested. 

Laird, who had been serving 12 concurrent 7-year prison sentences for a variety of crimes and was out on parole, had an active Missouri Probation and Parole warrant issued for his arrest for being a parole absconder with multiple felony charges. Also arrested were Shelby D. Gutierrez, 58, and Mellissa Collins, 40, both of West Plains. 

Officers found three quarters of a pound of methamphetamine and multiple firearms at the residence. 

All three were charged with drug trafficking in the first-degree and given a bond of $50,000.00. He is being held in the Howell County Jail.