Mahwah officers and federal marshals were stationed in, around and near the Super 8 motel on Route 17 when they surprised 26-year-old Cody Howell just after 8 p.m.
Howell — who was involved in a high-speed car chase in Florida when he was 19 — is officially charged here with being a fugitive from justice. He was being held without bail this morning, pending extradition, in the Bergen County Jail.
The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Howell has a history of run-ins — and run offs — with police. He spent more than three years in prison before being released on Christmas 2009.
Authorities in Lee County had been looking for Howell since he skipped town before an April 30 trial for a DWI crash that seriously injured at least one person near his Cape Coral home, records show.
Police also charged him in that incident with selling cocaine.
Howell already had a DUI on his record, from Oct 2010, as well as convictions for aggravated battery (assault) with a firearm, resisting arrest and fleeing from police while on the suspended list, records show.
In at least two instances, he failed to appear in court and had to be re-arrested, according to court records.
In another, police said, he led officers on a high-speed chase.
Three weeks after his 18th birthday, Howell was arrested in 2004 for holding up a shopkeeper, records show. Two years earlier, police said, the then-16-year-old Howell fought with officers arresting him for a theft.
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