Whatcom County charges two fugitives who tried to elude Bellingham authorities
A 40-year-old man from Los Altos, Calif., has been charged with three felonies related to eluding police and vehicular assault.
Paul Robert Schonhardt was arrested by the Bellingham Police Department on Nov. 6 along with his girlfriend, 36-year-old Kristina Marie Kenna of Bellingham. Both had active fugitive warrants from California at the time of their arrest.
Police began pursuing Schonhardt after he failed to stop at a stop sign and use a turn signal on Creston Way, according to court records. He managed to evade two police cars and get onto Interstate 5 south, where another officer was waiting for him.
The officer tried to get behind Schonhardt, but he sped up, outpacing the police car that was going 107 mph. Bellingham Police Lt. Claudia Murphy said officers saw the car get off at the Old Fairhaven Parkway exit and began to patrol the area.
Police found a car crashed partially through some brush and a gap in a nearby fence, and recognized it as the vehicle they’d been chasing. The airbags had been deployed, and officers found drug paraphernalia, mail and shaved keys in the car, Murphy said.
Schonhardt was seen running away from the vehicle, according to court records, and a K-9 team found him hiding in the back of a nearby truck bed. He appeared to be sweating and out of breath.
Schonhardt admitted to driving the car and said he ran because he had a warrant out of California for stealing a vehicle, court documents state. He said he “would’ve gotten away if it hadn’t been raining.”
When asked if anyone else was in the car, Schonhardt initially said no. Court records show he later told police that his girlfriend, Kenna, was in the car. He said she told him to stop for police, but he chose to elude. He also told officers that he was out looking for mail to steal, which led police to establish reasonable suspicion to detain Kenna for a mail theft investigation.
The K-9 team and an unmanned aerial system aircraft found Kenna shoeless in a blackberry bush. She was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham for treatment for a fractured vertebra in her spine and later released to be taken to jail on fugitive-from-justice warrants.
Police discovered Kenna had warrants from the Superior Court of San Mateo County for theft of identifying information and prior felony offenses. BPD issued an additional warrant for failure to appear and third-degree malicious mischief.
Schonhardt has been charged with vehicular assault, hit-and-run with an injury and attempting to elude a police vehicle. He is being held at Whatcom County jail on $100,000 bond.
Kenna is also in jail custody awaiting extradition to California.
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM.