Arrest made in Corona crash that injured man
11:25 AM PDT on Thursday, July 3, 2008
By GENE GHIOTTO
The Press-Enterprise
A Corona woman has been arrested in the Jan. 31 hit-and-run crash that left a Massachusetts man with severe brain damage and 19 broken bones, police said Wednesday.
Kelly Marie Sandoval, 46, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving and driving on a suspended license and booked Tuesday into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, said Sgt. Jerry Pawluczenko, a Corona police spokesman.
David Derosier had left a restaurant about 7:50 p.m. Jan. 31 and was walking across East Rincon Street in Corona when he was hit by a speeding car with four people inside, police said.
The vehicle, which did not have its lights on, stopped briefly then sped away toward Joy Street.
"I'm glad that she's off the street," Sarah Derosier, David Derosier's wife, said in a phone interview.
David Derosier, a team mechanic for the Troy Lee Designs race team, was hospitalized at Riverside Community Hospital until Feb. 27, when he returned to Massachusetts for treatment at a rehabilitation hospital. He has been home about three weeks while recovering.
"He's making slow and steady progress," Sarah Derosier said. "He walks with a cane and uses a walker at night. He just started outpatient therapy and that's probably going to be six or seven days a week."
On Tuesday, Corona police traffic investigators got information about a possible suspect, Pawluczenko said.
Officers spoke with Sandoval at her Rimpau Avenue home, and she told investigators that she was the driver of the car that struck Derosier, Pawluczenko said.
She told police that she fled because her driver's license had been suspended, Pawluczenko said.
Sandoval told investigators she was with her 13- and 16-year-old children at the time of the crash, along with a 17-year-old friend, Pawluczenko said.
Reach Gene Ghiotto at 951-893-2115 or gghiotto@PE.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_W_warrest03.4a80882.html