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VERNAL — A Vernal man is accused of hitting a bicyclist, dragging her three blocks and then trying to hide what he had allegedly done.
Ramos Ray Cesspooch, 43, was charged Monday in 8th District Court with failing to stop at a serious accident and obstruction of justice, third-degree felonies; reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor; driving on a suspended license, a class C misdemeanor; and failing to stop or yield, an infraction.
On Aug. 13, about 10:40 a.m. near 300 West and 500 South in Vernal, 21-year-old Breanna Berry was struck by a vehicle "that failed to yield or stop at an intersection … and drug the cyclist for three blocks, as the cyclist was trapped under the moving vehicle," according to charging documents.
Berry suffered "severe abrasions and burns as well as spinal fractures from being dragged under the vehicle," the charges state. She was flown to University Hospital in Salt Lake City.
"She could not be here with us right now had her guardian angels not been with her," Berry's sister, Sierra Walker, told KSL-TV. "The first thing she said to me was how scared she was and that she thought she was never going to see any of us again."
The driver, Cesspooch, continued driving after hitting Berry and ran another stop sign while fleeing, the charges state.
"(Cesspooch) drove to his residence and parked his car. He then removed identifying stickers from his vehicle so as to conceal it from law enforcement. (He) had a scanner in his residence that would have picked up broadcasts (by police) of the attempt to locate his vehicle," according to charging documents.
Police checked surveillance videos in the area of the crash that recorded the SUV which hit Berry. After canvassing nearby neighborhoods, an officer found a vehicle parked at a residence that matched the SUV, a police booking affidavit states. The vehicle was registered to Cesspooch.
"Ramos seemed nervous but continued to say nobody had been driving the vehicle and that it had been parked for a while. Ramos later said the vehicle had been parked all morning," officers noted in the affidavit after questioning him.
But police say it was clear the vehicle had recently been running.
"Ramos continued to say he didn't understand what I was asking, and I told him I simply wanted to know who was driving the vehicle on this day," according to the affidavit. "In further looking at the vehicle's exterior, hair was observed in the passenger side front wheel well that was consistent with hair from the cyclist that was struck."
Police also found discarded stickers that Cesspooch allegedly removed with a razor from his SUV after the crash, according to police.
