NORWICH, Vt. (AP) – Eric Daley, suspected of killing a state trooper after he refused to allow his car to be searched for drugs, was captured Tuesday on the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania.

Daley was arrested in a wooded area of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains near the New Jersey state line, not far from Interstate 80, where he had fled to elude authorities, Vermont State Police said.

Daley, 23, of Lebanon, N.H., was scheduled to be arraigned in eastern Pennsylvania late Tuesday before District Justice Debbie York on fugitive from justice charges, police said.

He already was facing two felony drug charges in New Hampshire from March 2003. He’s accused of marijuana, cocaine and hashish possession. A search of his wrecked car also turned up drugs, state police said.

The arrest came roughly 36 hours after a car Daley was driving smashed into state police Sgt. Michael Johnson as he stood in a turnaround in the median of Interstate 91. The car allegedly swerved to avoid spikes Johnson had laid across the highway to stop Daley.

“The death of Sergeant Johnson was not a motor vehicle incident that escalated out of control,” Public Safety Commissioner Kerry Sleeper said at a late afternoon news conference. “The death of Sergeant Johnson was a calculated decision by a drug dealer to avoid arrest at any cost.”

Daley initially was stopped Sunday for speeding on I-91 in Thetford, five miles north of the fatal accident, state police Capt. Glenn Cutting said. The trooper suspected there might be drugs in the car, but Daley refused a request to search it.

While the trooper was conferring with other officers about seeking a search warrant or calling in a canine search team, Daley allegedly drove off. He was pursued down the highway by cruisers and Johnson set up the spikes to stop him, police said.

Vermont authorities said they had assistance from state police in New Hampshire and local police in Winchendon, Mass., that led them to Pennsylvania.

The leads were the result of “hard solid police work,” Cutting said, who refused to elaborate because the case still is under investigation.

Daley was taken to a trailhead in the town of Slateford, Pa., by someone that Vermont State Police described only as “an associate.”

“He was going to walk the trail to elude police,” a state police statement said.

Vermont authorities alerted their counterparts in Pennsylvania, where state police entered the Appalachian Trail from one trailhead and U.S. Forest Service agents entered from another. The state police found Daley and took him into custody without incident.

Authorities have determined that Daley had been traveling in at least three vehicles that they had alerted the public to be on the lookout for and there had been another passenger in two of the vehicles, Cutting said.

That assistance could lead to charges against Daley’s friends of hindrance of an investigation and accessory after the fact of a crime.

Daley was wanted on charges of gross negligent operation with death resulting, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and attempting to elude police.

Other charges also are being contemplated against Daley, said Sleeper, who also has been conferring with the U.S. attorney’s office about federal counts.

“It’s clear that we intend to bring the full power of federal or state charges against this suspect,” Sleeper said.

Authorities referred to Daley repeatedly as a drug dealer who showed disregard for Johnson.

“Even when Sergeant Johnson lay fatally injured on the ground, the suspect chose to flee the scene rather than render assistance, one calculated and criminal choice after another to perpetuate his drug business,” Sleeper said.

Daley crossed the Connecticut River into New Hampshire on Sunday while other troopers attended to Johnson. Daley escaped with what Sgt. Bruce Melendy said were minor injuries with help from an unsuspecting canoeist.

A search of the wrecked car Daley had been driving Sunday turned up two pounds of marijuana and white powder that tested positive preliminarily as cocaine. Suspected LSD also was found, along with $475 in cash, state police said.

Johnson, 39, is survived by his wife and three children.

AP-ES-06-17-03 1810EDT

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