JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The driver charged in the hit-and-run death of a scooter rider was driving recklessly minutes before the fatal crash, a witness told News4Jax on Tuesday.
Trisha Smith (pictured above) said she was driving her family home from a vacation and was just blocks from her turn off Normandy Boulevard when she was nearly run off the road by a black Nissan Pathfinder behind her.
"All of a sudden there were no cars on the road. It's after midnight. There were bright headlights in my rearview mirror. I couldn't see the front bumper at all, and he's riding my tail," Smith said. "He was obviously speeding because I know I was going a little over the speed limit myself, so he had to be traveling much faster than me to come up behind me that quick. Then I looked, and there were no other vehicles around."
Smith later learned that same SUV, driven by 33-year-old Santos Herrera-Montiel, reportedly hit and killed 37-year-old Michael Moon just after midnight. Herrera-Montiel turned himself in to authorities hours later at a convenience store. He is charged with leaving the scene of a crash resulting in a death.
"I heard about the hit-and-run once I got home (from work the next day) in the news, and when I saw the truck, it hit me and then I looked at the Google maps, and then I realized it was right up the road," Smith said. "And then the timing. It was the same time that we were on Normandy."
Moon's family remains in mourning, wondering how they'll be able to pay for his funeral.
"We're taking it day by day. It's very hard because we're all very close, a very close family. Just doing the best that we can," said Sean Baccus, Moon's nephew.
Smith said she wonders if she could have somehow done more to prevent the crash.
"I want to see justice for the family involved," Smith said. "(I) feel very bad that it happened to someone else, (that) it happened on a motor scooter. It runs through my head that if they would have hit our car, granted we would have been injured, but it would've saved us a fatality."
Smith said she contacted the Florida Highway Patrol on Tuesday to offer any statements that would help in the case.
A GoFundMe account has been created to help Moon's family pay for funeral expenses. To donate, go to http://Gofundme.com/michaelmoonfuneral.