Man held for court on homicide charges
CARMICHAELS – Magisterial District Judge Lee Watson held all charges against a 39-year-old Waynesburg man, including homicide by vehicle and driving while under the influence of alcohol, for court during a preliminary hearing Tuesday. The charges stemmed from a late-night hit and run in which Albert James King of Waynesburg allegedly struck and killed Jessica Patterson, 21, also of Waynesburg, along Route 19 where she was walking the night of Oct. 15.
Testimony was heard from Sam King, a passenger in the pickup the night of the accident as well as Greene County Deputy Coroner Mary Lewis and investigating state police trooper Matthew Jardine.
Albert King, of Greene Terrace Court, was initially charged with being involved in an accident that caused death or personal injury, failure to stop and render aid and failure to notify police before Watson Oct. 19 after the pickup he was driving struck Patterson.
He was subsequently placed in the Greene County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bond.
After further investigation, police charged King with vehicular homicide Oct. 28.
Greene County Deputy Coroner Mary Lewis pronounced Patterson dead at the scene at 12:40 a.m. Oct. 16.
Lewis said that when she arrived at the crash site she found Patterson’s body completely off the roadway, near the southbound lane shoulder.
According to Lewis, Patterson suffered multiple injuries. An autopsy conducted Oct. 17 by Dr. Cyril Wecht, Allegheny County chief medical examiner, revealed the cause of death to be multiple blunt force trauma to the head, chest and extremities.
The accident occurred between 10 and 11 p.m. Oct. 15, when a 1985 Dodge pickup, operated by King, struck Patterson, who police described as “walking in the roadway.”
State police added that King was not injured in the crash.
Jardine, in his criminal complaint, said that after interviewing several passengers in King’s pickup, who all related that King turned around after striking Patterson, returned to the site of her body but then fled the scene.
One of the witnesses also told Jardine that King did not call 911 or the police after he returned home Sunday morning but went to bed.
During testimony Tuesday, Jardine said that the Waynesburg Borough Police cited Sam King for disorderly conduct late that night following the accident, during which he told the officers that there was a body along Route 19.
Waynesburg contacted the state police who found Patterson’s body along Route 19, near a curve in the roadway.
Jardine said after further investigation he found the pickup outside King’s residence early the following morning with damage to the grill, fender and one of the headlights, as well as other physical evidence from the victim.
Jardine then stated he transported King to Greene County Memorial Hospital for a blood sample during which King allegedly said, “Can’t I just admit to you that I was driving drunk?”
Blood alcohol tests revealed King had a BAC of .20 after spending the afternoon and evening at a party.
And it was revealed during testimony that Patterson also had a blood alcohol level of .255 at the time she was struck.
Patterson was employed at Kyowa in Waynesburg and lived at home with her father and two siblings at the time of her death.
King will remain housed in the Greene County Prison in lieu of $150,00 bond.