Columbus man charged in fatal hit-and-run was fleeing gunfire, police say
The man charged with felony homicide by vehicle for a fatal Feb. 25 hit-and-run crash on Third Avenue had happened upon a gunfight he was trying to flee, Columbus police said Tuesday.
David Lee Winters Jr. was three blocks from home about 9 p.m. when he encountered two people shooting at each other near 29th Street, according to testimony at Winters’ preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Frightened by what he witnessed, Winters accelerated through a stop sign, striking Curtis Bernard Ledbetter, 26, and leaving him on the sidewalk outside 2814 Third Ave., investigators said.
Ledbetter had a gun on him when he was found dead at the scene, police said.
Winters continued to speed away, striking a parked vehicle and running more stop signs as he raced home, where he tried to conceal the damage to his car, an officer testified. He was arrested March 1 after police got a tip that he was involved.
Winters, 31, faced multiple traffic charges Tuesday in court, where he was represented by attorney Michael Garner.
Garner said the rear window on Winters’ car was shot out, and asked whether his client should bear the blame for the danger he faced.
“He’s just driving down the street, and he runs into a shooting,” the attorney said. “Well, he’s more like a defendant than a victim, isn’t he?”
The officer replied that Winters still should have reported the crash.
Recorder’s Court prosecutor Nicholas Hud noted that Winters also was impaired, having that night used “spice,” or synthetic marijuana, while he was out of jail on bond for a previous offense involving the drug.
Garner argued Winters’ homicide charge should be a misdemeanor, because he had no criminal intent in fleeing while fearing for his own safety.
“He didn’t leave the scene. He was run off from the scene by gunfire,” Garner argued. “Anybody that would stay there and get shot, that’s just not reasonable to assume that he would stay there.”
Garner asked for a $10,000 bond. Hud asked for $50,000.
Agreeing with police that Winters should have reported the crash, Recorder’s Court Judge Julius Hunter sent the case to Muscogee Superior Court, setting Winters’ bond at $25,000 on the homicide charge, and adding bonds totaling $1,300 on his other traffic counts.