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By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier November 08. 2014 1:16PM Police still searching for high-speed driver MURPHY — Juan Granados-Gonzales lies in the intensive care unit at Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, a breathing tube down his throat. The person who put him there remains on the loose. "They said it's going to be a long recovery. We just really pray he gets better," Valeria Valdez, one of Granados-Gonzales' co-workers at the Si Casa Xpress restaurant in Murphy, told the Daily Courier after she visited him Thursday. "He's my boss. My friend. He's such a sweet guy." Valdez said the 27-year-old Granados-Gonzales is in a semi-comatose state, occasionally able to move his eyes around. He's listed in critical condition. Granados-Gonzales, who has worked at Si Casa for more than two years, has a wife and four young children and is the family's sole provider. They live in Grants Pass. Wednesday night he was pulling out of the Union 76 station adjacent to the restaurant when a speeding GMC Denali fleeing police south on Williams Highway slammed into the front of his car. The force of the crash flipped the car over in the air, according to a witness at the station. The crash was so violent it knocked the engine out of the car. The engine came to rest 30 feet away and the car's battery landed 100 feet away. Police believe the Denali was driven by Jeremy Douglas McGhee, a 30-year-old career criminal from Grants Pass who is still at large after fleeing the crash. McGhee, 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds, has a felony warrant out for his arrest on meth possession, and has been involved in other criminal cases in the area, according to the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety. He has close-cropped red hair, hazel eyes and a goatee, based on a department photo. Jim Hamilton, deputy chief for the department, said detectives were still following leads. "He's someone we want to get off the streets so nobody else gets hurt," Hamilton said. "Hopefully he does the right thing and turns himself in." The episode began Wednesday night when a Grants Pass police officer ran the plates on the Denali shortly before 7:30 p.m., in the vicinity of Espey Road south of Grants Pass, and determined the car had been stolen in Douglas County. When the officer activated his overhead lights to make a traffic stop, the Denali sped off. Witnesses said it reached speeds of over 90 mph. A supervisor called off the chase shortly before the crash, Hamilton said. "You have to make a decision, is it worth the risk to keep chasing him, or better off to terminate it," Hamilton said, speaking of searches in general. He wouldn't speculate on the specifics of Wednesday night's chase. McGhee has a history of bad behavior, with convictions for hit and run, two robberies, drunken driving and assault. Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or [email protected]. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141108/NEWS/141109669 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->