Man accused of attacking deputy charged in jail with carjacking

The Virginia State Police on Wednesday arrested a man for a September armed carjacking and abduction that took place in the parking lot of a store in Gainesville. Their man was easy to find: He was already in jail.

George Golder Phillips, 30, of Culpeper, was in jail Wednesday, accused of attempted murder for shooting a Fauquier County Sheriff's deputy in the leg in December.

The deputy was bringing Phillips to the county courthouse for a routine hearing about a Fauquier bank robbery he was charged with in November.

Phillips -- whose address had been previously listed by deputies as Warrenton -- was being held at the Northwest Regional Adult Detention Center in Winchester when the state police came calling Wednesday.

Fauquier and Prince William authorities have confirmed that it was the same Phillips who was charged Wednesday.

The state police are involved because a trooper who was alerted to the September carjacking spotted an SUV on I-495 South that matched the one described in calls out to police and followed the SUV across the Wilson Bridge into Maryland. The SUV crashed and the suspect fled, eluding pursuit.

A tip to investigators based on a sketch of the suspect eventually led to Phillips, state police said. The state police didn't specify when they connected the man in jail with the carjacking.

-- Mary Pat Flaherty