Richmond man arrested in Goochland on felony eluding charge

Devon Lamont Johnson, 34, of Richmond, was arrested May 13 in the Hockett Road and Laurel Grove Drive area and charged with felony eluding police, reckless driving and driving revoked.

The felony eluding charge carries more weight than a routine traffic offense. Under Virginia law, ordinary eluding is a Class 2 misdemeanor, but it becomes a Class 6 felony when a driver, after being signaled to stop, drives in a willful and wanton way that endangers a law-enforcement vehicle or another person. Reckless driving is generally a Class 1 misdemeanor, and driving after revocation can bring additional penalties. In practical terms, the charge points to behavior authorities say crossed from evasive driving into conduct that placed others at risk.

That matters in Goochland because Hockett Road is already one of the county’s closely watched corridors. Goochland County and the Virginia Department of Transportation are moving ahead with an intersection-improvement project that would add a new two-lane connector road, a raised concrete median and a left-turn lane, along with a roundabout near Holly Lane. VDOT lists the project as in design, with construction now estimated to start in fall 2029 and finish in spring 2031. The agency puts the price tag at $19.4 million.

The road has also seen more immediate disruption. In March 2025, VDOT closed a section of Route 623, Hockett Road, between Hamlet Road and Tuckahoe Creek Parkway for a pipe replacement project. The repeated attention to this stretch reflects how heavily Goochland leans on Hockett Road as a connector between neighborhoods, development pressure and through traffic in the Manakin Sabot area.

County transportation pages say Goochland serves as the liaison with VDOT on road improvements, and the county’s traffic-calming process requires approval from VDOT, Goochland Fire-Rescue, the sheriff’s office and the Board of Supervisors. Against that backdrop, the arrest on Hockett Road is not just another charge. It lands on a corridor where law enforcement, engineers and county officials are already trying to reduce risk, manage traffic and decide how a growing network of roads should function safely.