Driver Believed Behind February Hit-and-Run in Orange County Arrested

Members of the Florida Highway Patrol working within Orange County have received a tremendous boost in their search for the driver responsible for a hit-and-run that took place along State Road 528 on the 23rd of February. According to the new reports, the incident itself took place sometime close to 11:30 at night, after a 70-year-old man ran out of gas while driving along State Road 528.

The man behind the wheel was, it seems, unable to move their car out of the travel lane before it suddenly died. Shortly afterwards, a second vehicle approached and pulled up behind the disabled car. At this time, the driver of the disabled vehicle exited their car and approached the second car in order to enlist this new driver for assistance. It was while the two people were talking that a third car entered the scene.

The driver of this third vehicle seemingly noticed the two parked cars and swerved to try and avoid striking them. What they did not avoid, sadly, was the 70-year-old man. After the car struck the man, the driver continued to travel down the road; however, they left a maroon side view mirror behind at the scene.

It was only a few weeks later that troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol received two different reports of a car that matched the description of the one connected with the hit-and-run. These reports stated that a 37-year-old individual had posted pictures of their car on Facebook, captioning the pictures with the news that he had struck a deer. Troopers reached out to the 37-year-old, and he repeated the story about thinking he had struck a deer. But the investigation did not end there.

On March 4th, police obtained a search warrant on the car owned by the 37-year-old. They found that the driver had already cleaned the vehicle thoroughly as well as repaired any damage that had resulted from the crash. Still, the troopers were able to pull enough samples from the cleaned car to decisively prove that DNA from the killed man was on the car’s windshield.

Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence though was that on the 28th of February, only days after the fatal crash, the 37-year-old had entered “vehicular manslaughter” into the Google search engine.

The 37-year-old was officially arrested and charged on numerous accounts on Wednesday, June 5th.

Sources:

• Hit-and-run suspect posts pictures of crash damage online, troopers say

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.