Police have charged a 22-year-old man with fleeing the scene after his car hit and killed a pedestrian who was walking across a dangerous stretch of Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.
The crash took place at 10 p.m. on June 24 on the Boulevard near Orange Avenue. Frank Aceto, 49, of Wallingford, was killed while crossing the busy state road with a friend, in the dark, without using a delineated crosswalk.
Police do not believe the driver was at fault in the accident; however, he faced steeper consequences because he fled from police.
Here’s what happened, according to Officer Dave Hartman:
Police investigating the crash found the driver had fled, but left behind a piece of his car’s side-view mirror at the scene. Using that clue, they determined the car was a red Honda Civic. Officer Frank Sanchez spotted a vehicle of that description in the back yard of 84 Frank St. on July 2. Cops tracked down the man who they believe was driving that car.
The suspect, of Norton Street, turned himself into police headquarters on Monday at 11:30 p.m. He “confessed he was the one driving the 1997 Red Honda Civic DX” on the night of the fatal crash.
The suspect was charged with “felony evading, tampering with physical evidence, operating an uninsured car, driving with a suspended license, misuse of marker plates and mutilating a V.I.N. (vehicle identification number).”
The suspect “told Detective Jeff Goodwin that he’d planned to turn himself in for some time but was scared.”
“This is a sad case all around,” Goodwin said in a press release. “Had the driver remained at the scene, things would have [been] much different. He would have been charged, but not with such serious crimes.”
Sounds like good shoe-leather work on the part of the cops, given that the driver and car must have been hard to track by the standard channels -- license plate, VIN, driver's license, etc.
And yes, a very sad case.