A woman found guilty in a fatal hit-and-run which she said she didn’t realize had occurred at the time was sentenced to a year in prison, a year of probation and the maximum $1,500 fine.
The defense for 43-year-old Christy Littleford said she thought she hit a deer in the early morning hours of Sept. 19, 2010.
But she had struck 30-year-old Natasha Pettigrew, a college student and triathlete riding her bicycle on Route 202 in Largo, Md.
Littleford’s defense said she stopped twice but continued home, not realizing she’d struck a person and was dragging a bike.
But Prince George’s County Deputy State’s Attorney Donnell Turner’s statement Friday accused Littleford of “willingly and knowingly” leaving the scene of an “obviously very serious accident.”
“It is possible that if Ms. Littleford had stayed to care for the victim and called for help, she likely would not have been charged with any criminal offense,” the statement read.
Later, her husband found Pettigrew’s bike lodged in the undercarriage of Littleford’s Cadillac Escalade. The couple went back to the scene, then to the hospital where Pettigrew had been taken and then to a police station to report the incident.
