By JASON CARPENTER

EASTHAMPTON -- Two Holyoke robbery suspects being pursued by police lost control of their car Tuesday and crashed on Mountain Road, killing one man and leaving the driver facing charges in his death.
The driver of the vehicle, Scott Morris, 29, of Salem, is under Holyoke Police guard at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where he was treated for minor injuries. Police said they suspect the name is an alias.
Morris was to be released today for arraignment in Holyoke District Court on charges of failing to stop for a police officer, driving to endanger, failing to stop for a stop sign and driving under the influence of drugs, Holyoke Police Lt. Michael Higgins said. He also will be arraigned in Northampton District Court on charges related to the fatality.
The identity of the crash victim, also from the Salem area, was being withheld until his family could be notified.
Easthampton Police Chief Robert Redfern said Morris would be charged with vehicular homicide by Easthampton Police because the crash occurred in Easthampton.
Holyoke Police Sgt. George Girard said they also arrested a woman believed to be linked to the suspects in a Holyoke motel room.
Kimberly Boles, 26, of East Hampstead, N.H., was arrested for receiving stolen property, valued over $250.
The pursuit of the two men began after two Holyoke police detectives were investigating a reported breaking and entering at 3:10 a.m. at the Competitive Edge Ski and Bike Shop on Route 5. Clothing and the cash register were stolen.
Detectives James Taylor and Kevin Boyle were investigating the incident at around 10:30 a.m. when they saw a green car matching a description of the suspects' vehicle drive by the scene, Girard said.
When Taylor and Boyle pulled the car over on Route 5, the detectives approached the car and identified themselves and instructed the driver to turn off the vehicle. At that point, the vehicle sped off, and the pursuit began, Girard said.
The vehicle then turned onto Interstate Route 91 south where Holyoke Officer David Usher picked up the pursuit in his marked cruiser.
Girard said the cruiser could not keep up with the suspects' speeding vehicle -- estimated to be traveling at up to 100 mph -- but maintained visual contact while the car exited I-91 and turned onto Route 141, in the direction of Easthampton. Usher lost all contact with the car at the Holyoke Animal Hospital, and eventually came upon the scene on Mountain Road where the car had already crashed.
Bea Blakesly said she had just pulled into her driveway with a friend at 157 Holyoke St. when she saw the car on its roof, still traveling down the road.
"We were talking and we heard the crash. We saw the car spinning on its hood," said Blakesley.
Dozens of Easthampton, Holyoke and State police officers and emergency vehicles gathered at the accident scene. Witnesses looked on at the twisted wreckage of the 1992 model car. A cash register drawer and clothing were strewn on the road. A body lay covered with a yellow plastic sheet in the middle of the road.
Sgt. Bruce McMahon, the Easthampton department's accident reconstruction officer, said Morris apparently lost control while trying to negotiate a turn at the bottom of Mountain Road, and the car left the road.
"It hit the telephone pole 64 inches off the ground," McMahon said of the vehicle. "He was definitely going 70 plus miles per hour."
McMahon said neither of the occupants was wearing a seat belt and the car was not equipped with airbags. McMahon said both men were ejected from the vehicle as it spun after striking a telephone pole on Mountain Road. The speed limit in the area is 35 mph.
Redfern said there were no other cars involved in the accident and no one else was hurt.
"It's too bad it happened, but it's fortunate that no innocent bystanders were injured. Mountain Road is a very heavily traveled road," said Redfern.
Gary Watling, visiting his daughter-in-law, Easthampton Councilor Joy Winnie, also of 157 Holyoke St., was outside when the accident occurred.
"One of the guys was thrown in the front yard" of a nearby house, said Watling. "There was a loud thump and then scraping. We could hear the sirens, so we knew he was being chased."
Girard said the incident was not considered a high-speed chase. "It was a pursuit, but (Usher) laid back and was basically monitoring the direction of the vehicle," said Girard.
Higgins, the Holyoke police lieutenant, said a warrant was served to search a room at the motel room in Holyoke where the two suspects had been staying. Police discovered numerous items that may be linked to a string of breaks in the city over the past week, he said.
The motel room is where Boles was arrested.

Published: 01/06/1999 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette