OGDEN — A Clearfield man has been charged with allegedly trying to run down his ex-wife and then crashing his truck into a police car, crushing a parole officer’s arm between the vehicles.

Christopher Anthony Nelson, 30, is charged with the attempted aggravated murder of the officer and the attempted domestic violence murder of his ex-wife in the events of March 9 at the woman’s home in Roy.

Charging documents filed in 2nd District Court by the Weber County Attorney’s Office on Monday said Nelson was wanted for parole violations when three Utah Adult Probation and Parole officers arrived at the home. Nelson was in the driver’s seat of his Ford F350 truck and his ex-wife was standing at the driver’s door talking to him. The parole vehicle pulled up to the front of the truck, police lights flashing.

The officers got out of their vehicle and approached Nelson. According to a probable cause statement by a county attorney’s investigator, Nelson backed up the truck and then drove toward his ex-wife, who dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding being hit.

The officers ran back to their vehicle and two got in, the third still in the process. The affidavit alleged that Nelson then drove into the passenger side of the police vehicle, crushing the officer’s hand, wrist and forearm between the car frame, the door and the truck.

Nelson drove away and was arrested in Carbon County later that day by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper who spun Nelson’s truck out of control, according to the affidavit.

Nelson had sent text messages to his ex-wife threatening to kill her, the document said, including one that said, “I’m going to enjoy watching u beg for ur pathetic life.” Since then, the document said, Nelson “has expressed extreme animosity towards his ex-wife and AP&P, blaming them for his current incarceration.”

AP&P officers said in charging documents that, after his arrest, Nelson admitted he aimed his truck at the officer and asked whether he had died. AP&P said the officer needed surgery for his injuries.

Nelson is held in the Box Elder County Jail in Brigham City, where officers took him on March 10 for his alleged parole violation on a 2016 forgery conviction. Court records also show Nelson is on court probation in a 2018 theft-by-deception case in Davis County, and he faces a felony stalking charge in Salt Lake County related to a January 2022 incident.

In the Weber County case, both attempted murder charges against Nelson are first-degree felonies. He also is charged with third-degree felony failure to respond to an officer’s signal to stop.

A Roy Police Department spokesperson, Officer Stuart Hackworth, said Tuesday his agency participated in the investigation, which was led by the county attorney’s office.

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