Charges: Suspect drove 120 miles to Sleepy Eye after deadly Maplewood hit-and-run

A man suspected of fatally striking a man Friday morning in Maplewood proceeded to drive the banged-up van two hours to a job site in Sleepy Eye, charging documents show.

Jose Ronald Hernandez-Pineda, 46, is accused of hitting 31-year-old Abdul Bakr Jafar. He faces two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in Ramsey County.

RELATED: Man arrested in connection with fatal Maplewood hit-and-run

According to a criminal complaint, a newspaper delivery driver reported the collision around 4:30 a.m. on the 2300 block of Maryland Avenue after seeing a van speed away from where a man was lying in the road. The victim, Jafar, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The delivery driver managed to capture photos of the van and its license plate. The van was registered to a roofing company with a listed address in Maplewood just over a mile from the crash scene. Driver and Vehicle Services records showed Hernandez-Pineda is also associated with the company’s address on Rolling Hills Drive.

Investigators spoke with a woman at the home, who said she and Hernandez-Pineda were in the middle of getting a divorce. She acknowledged that her estranged husband drove a van matching the suspect vehicle’s description and said she called him that morning after receiving a call from police. During that call, Hernandez-Pineda said he may have hit a deer, the complaint states.

Police tracked Hernandez-Pineda’s phone to a home in Sleepy Eye where a roofing crew was at work. Local authorities found the suspect van with heavy front-end damage at the job site.

Charging documents allege that Hernandez-Pineda smelled of alcohol when he was placed under arrest; a breathalyzer registered his blood-alcohol content at 0.06. Police also obtained a warrant for a blood draw.

Last week, authorities said alcohol was suspected to be a factor in the crash.

As of Monday afternoon, Hernandez-Pineda remained in custody at the Ramsey County Jail on $1 million bail. He is due to appear in court on Tuesday.
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