Cyclist killed in hit and run

A bicyclist who died Sunday after being hit by a pickup was 32-year-
old Lucinda Gillis of Olivehurst, according to the Yuba-Sutter office
of the California Highway Patrol.

The pickup driver, who fled from the scene, was identified as Andrew
Louis Cornett, 24, of Linda. He was arrested near his Park Avenue home
and was being held Monday in Yuba County Jail on suspicion of
vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence and hit and run
driving.

Cornett was driving south on North Beale Road when he ran a red light
at Feather River Boulevard and hit Gillis as she was about to finish
crossing the street, the CHP said.

Cornett fled in the pickup but abandoned it a short distance away.
When a CHP officer found him at his home, he fled to a neighbor's shed
and was arrested, a report said.

Gillis died at Rideout Memorial Hospital.

On Jun 7, 8:54*am, Anton Berlin wrote:
A bicyclist who died Sunday after being hit by a pickup was 32-year-
old Lucinda Gillis of Olivehurst, according to the Yuba-Sutter office
of the California Highway Patrol.

The pickup driver, who fled from the scene, was identified as Andrew
Louis Cornett, 24, of Linda. He was arrested near his Park Avenue home
and was being held Monday in Yuba County Jail on suspicion of
vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence and hit and run
driving.

Cornett was driving south on North Beale Road when he ran a red light
at Feather River Boulevard and hit Gillis as she was about to finish
crossing the street, the CHP said.

Cornett fled in the pickup but abandoned it a short distance away.
When a CHP officer found him at his home, he fled to a neighbor's shed
and was arrested, a report said.

Gillis died at Rideout Memorial Hospital.

If a red light *was* run, and a BA *does* indicate intoxication the
charge should be upgraded to murder. But it probably won't be;
cyclists are chattel. Car drivers are people and citizens.

On Sun, 7 Jun 2009 12:19:56 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

If a red light *was* run, and a BA *does* indicate intoxication the
charge should be upgraded to murder. But it probably won't be;
cyclists are chattel. Car drivers are people and citizens.

Please post after at least a brief thought. Murder is one form of
homicide. This might be a homicide, but almost never murder.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

wrote in message
...
On Sun, 7 Jun 2009 12:19:56 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

If a red light *was* run, and a BA *does* indicate intoxication the
charge should be upgraded to murder. But it probably won't be;
cyclists are chattel. Car drivers are people and citizens.

Please post after at least a brief thought. Murder is one form of
homicide. This might be a homicide, but almost never murder.

Multiple charges and/or running from a site in which a person was killed is
a FELONY in most states. And they are 2nd or 3rd degree murder crimes.

On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 10:37:35 -0700, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com
wrote:

Multiple charges and/or running from a site in which a person was killed is
a FELONY in most states. And they are 2nd or 3rd degree murder crimes.

Yes, in very rare circumstances in California, but far from 'should'.
It is relatively rarely invoked and used when the intoxication rose to
the point that the person knew their condition was a threat in itself.
A person with too many at the bar driving home impaired is NOT that
case. A habitual drunk with a history of arrests and incidents might
be.

3rd degree murder would be unlikely in the vast majority of cases and
doesn't exist in most jurisdictions. This was a homicide, but never
came close to being a murder. There was no intent provable, the act
was not an act to commit homicide, so there was no act that would make
it 2nd degree murder and the intoxication as presented here would not
be the level normally used in invoking 3rd degree murder. So it is a
homicide, not a murder.

As to whether or not it was a felony, that wasn't an issue in my
reply. And homicide certainly can be a felony without being a murder.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...