Docs: Woman charged after November 2024 fatal hit-and-run on near northwest side

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis woman has been charged after leaving the scene of a fatal hit and run in mid-November 2024 on the near northwest side of Indianapolis.

According to court documents, filed earlier this month in Marion County, 32-year-old Melissa Borrayo was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or catastrophic injury, a Level 4 felony.

On the morning of Nov. 17, 2024, 66-year-old James Lee Poole was reportedly struck by a vehicle in the 2600 block of West Kessler Boulevard North Drive. Officials with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said at the time that the driver did not stay on the scene after the crash.

The documents said officers determined at the time that the striking vehicle had been traveling north on Kessler Boulevard North Drive when it struck Poole. At the scene, officers reportedly found “several black plastic pieces” from the vehicle, as well as a windshield wiper blade.

Through the use of automatic license plate readers, officers identified the vehicle as a black Chevrolet Captiva. The documents said that officers later found that the vehicle had been towed from a vacant residence in the 1800 block of W. 19th Street on Nov. 25, 2024. The vehicle reportedly had front-end damage, as well as windshield damage.

Police officers tracked down the car to its title owner, who said he sold it to a woman, later identified as Borrayo. The documents said that in a conversation with Borrayo, she said she reportedly abandoned the vehicle on the far south side in October 2024 after “it kept breaking down.”

“(Borrayo) said she was the only one who drove the Chevrolet in the time she had possession of it, and she did not know anything about a crash,” the documents said.

Officers used GPS, as well as ALPR images to show the vehicle in the area of the crash on Nov. 17. The vehicle was also spotted at the Kohl’s distribution center located in Plainfield, Borrayo’s reported place of employment at that time, the afternoon after the crash occurred.

Borrayo’s cell phone reportedly pinged cell towers near the crash site “several times before and after the time of the crash,” the documents said.

According to court documents, Borrayo’s initial hearing is scheduled for March 3 in Marion County court.