4-year term given to man guilty of fatal hit-and-run

FORT SMITH -- A Fort Smith man was sentenced in Sebastian County Circuit Court on Tuesday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to two charges connected with a hit-and-run fatality late last year.

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Court records show that Jeremy William Casey, 31, pleaded guilty to failure to stop for an accident with death or injury, a felony, and to negligent homicide, a misdemeanor.

He was scheduled to go on trial on the charges the week of July 7, according to court records.

Casey struck and killed Richard Cox, 48, of Fort Smith with a vehicle as he walked down a Fort Smith road Dec. 8.

Circuit Judge J. Michael Fitzhugh sentenced Casey to four years in prison with imposition of an additional two years suspended on the failure to stop charge and to one year on the negligent homicide. He ordered the two sentences to run concurrently.

Fitzhugh also ordered Casey to pay $6,199.37 in restitution to cover Cox's funeral expenses, $150 in court costs and to undergo alcohol counseling on his release from prison.

According to police reports, Casey was driving a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox north on Towson Avenue about 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 8 in snowy and icy conditions.

Interviewed later by police, according to the reports, Casey said he had been to two bars with three friends that night, and they were all driving to a restaurant when he hit something. He told police he stopped a few blocks down the road to inspect the damage and thought he might have hit a person but couldn't find any blood so he continued home.

The police examined the Equinox and said they found heavy damage to the right front side of the car and a large hole in the windshield with hair, flesh, blood and traces of blue fabric similar to the color of stocking cap Cox was wearing when he was killed.

He told police he didn't report the accident because he had outstanding warrants and no insurance, and the Equinox was not registered because he couldn't pay the sales tax.

A woman driving on Towson Avenue a few minutes after Cox was hit saw his body lying partially in the roadway near the intersection of Towson Avenue and South Boston Street and called police.

Metro on 06/25/2014

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