His mother, in the car with him at the time, indicates that they were driving the wrong way down the street on purpose: frustrated by the street closures from the ongoing festival, they got to within visual range of their destination (a garage where their belongings were) and opted to ignore the street signs to get there.
Photos of him post-arrest show visible injuries to his face. That wasn't the police: his driving menaced some young children (apparently near the food stand) so frightening their father that he ran after the car and decked the driver. It was at that point that the driver fled the scene.
Seven year is a crazy high sentence; much too long. But using a moving car to forcibly coerce people out of your way isn't a simple moving violation: it is, and should be, a felony.
2) He is not asking to be executed because the prison is horrible, but because they have taken away his pain meds -- which they did because he (allegedly) tried not swallowing them in order to sell them.
There's definitely more to this story, I wouldn't be so sure that he's completely innocent (regardless of how reasonable the sentence is).
The link posted by twoodfin says this:
"He has a history of aggressive behavior," said Navajo County Attorney Carlyon, whose investigators unearthed police reports relating to John in Alabama, Illinois and California.
Those incidents included threats, an alleged stalking of a young girl, an attempted suicide and a run-in with a Los Angeles bicyclist in which John was accused of running over the man's bicycle in a fit of anger. Not all the incidents resulted in charges, and none resulted in a conviction."