Driver Charged in Fatal Leyden Township Hit and Run

May 29, 2019Press Release, Uncategorized

A Chicago woman has been charged in a hit and run that killed a 37-year-old man, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.

At approximately 2:55 a.m. on Jan. 21, 2019 Sheriff’s Police located Troy Mitchell of Stone Park unresponsive with significant trauma in the 2400 block of Mannheim Road. The preliminary investigation found that he had been struck by a vehicle that was no longer on scene. Mitchell later died of his injuries at an area hospital.

Sheriff’s Police located a second victim, a 56-year-old Franklin Park man, who also sustained injuries after being struck by the same vehicle.

During the course of their investigation, Sheriff’s Police detectives identified the offending vehicle as a black, 2012 Nissan Sentra and identified the vehicle’s owner as 23-year-old Karla Navarrete Lemus. Detectives learned that Navarrete Lemus was involved in a traffic crash that morning on northbound Mannheim Road and that she had been using her cell phone at the time. During the investigation, Sheriff’s Police criminalistics investigators recovered Mitchell’s DNA that was found on the vehicle’s exterior.

Navarrete Lemus, of the 2300 block of West Wilson Avenue, was taken into custody on May 28 and was charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident causing death, a class 1 felony, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident causing personal injury, a class 4 felony. She is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing at 1:30 p.m. today at the Maywood Courthouse.

The public is reminded that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty by the government in a court of law.