The driver in a fatal New Year’s Eve hit-and-run was charged with a felony for crashing into a pedestrian outside of the crosswalk on Federal Boulevard and fleeing the scene, according to his arrest affidavit.
Raul Alexander Villa-Martinez, 18, faces a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving death, according to records.
Denver officers responded to the fatal crash in the 1200 block of S. Federal Boulevard, near W. Arizona Avenue, at 11:05 p.m. on Dec. 31. That area is between the city’s Mar Lee and Ruby Hill neighborhoods.
Paramedics took the pedestrian, identified in the arrest affidavit as 62-year-old Lisa Michelle Taylor, to the hospital, where she died shortly after 11:45 p.m., police said in the affidavit.
Taylor was outside of the marked crosswalk when she was hit by a silver sedan believed to be driven by Villa-Martinez, police said.
A camera on a nearby building captured photos of the silver sedan traveling south on Federal Boulevard. Investigators then used those photos to search for the car with Flock-brand cameras across the city, according to the affidavit.
Officers used photos from cameras near the crash to pull the car’s license plate and trace its registration to a Denver address, police wrote in the affidavit. The car was not found at that address, but detectives located it at a nearby Lakewood condominium.
The car had a cracked windshield, broken headlight and “bodily rubbing” marks from the fender to the windshield, police said. It was parked in a spot that the property manager said was rented to a person known as “Raul.”
The property manager also showed investigators a video of the vehicle being driven onto the property about 10 minutes after the fatal pedestrian crash, according to the affidavit.
Villa-Martinez came into a Denver Police Department district office on Jan. 4 and told officers he had been involved in the New Year’s Eve crash, police said. His attorney told officers over the phone that the 18-year-old had panicked after the crash and fled the scene because he was scared.
The Denver Police Department on Jan. 7, two days after he posted a $25,000 bail, according to court records.
Villa-Martinez is next scheduled to appear in court for an advisement hearing on Jan. 22.
