Motorcyclist Charged With Killing Jogger Was Unlicensed to Use Vehicle

A Bonita motorcyclist charged with killing a woman jogger by running over her was not licensed to operate a motorcycle, a state Department of Motor Vehicles employee said Tuesday.

Jerald Covey, 29, was charged with vehicular manslaughter in the Nov. 5 death of Stephanie Rossi, 29, a Bonita nurse who police say was hit head-on while jogging on Sweetwater Road. California Highway Patrol spokesman Lance Mino said Rossi died at the scene.

Covey, who is scheduled to appear in South Bay Municipal Court on Nov. 21, was arrested at the scene, Mino said. The suspect is free on his own recognizance.

A DMV records clerk said Tuesday that Covey “has a clean record,” but is not licensed to operate a motorcycle. The only California license issued to Covey was for non-commercial motor vehicles, she said.

Although the CHP is still investigating the accident, Covey’s arrest and subsequent release stirred considerable argument and some finger-pointing between the CHP and the district attorney’s office.

Investigators put the time of the accident at 4:45 p.m. According to Steve Casey, spokesman for Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, Covey was taken to Scripps Hospital in Chula Vista by paramedics and arrived at about 5:20 p.m. Covey was not accompanied by a CHP officer, Casey said, and walked away from the hospital.

He was discovered missing at about 5:55 p.m. and was not arrested again until about 9 p.m., when he returned home. Prosecutors were disturbed by Covey’s departure from the hospital, Casey said.

“It is my understanding that, once an individual is placed under arrest, that individual is not shipped off to some other destination but remains in the custody of law enforcement at all times, even in a hospital,” Casey said.

Mino declined to respond to Casey’s comment, saying that a final report on the incident will not be available until later this week.

CHP officials also revealed that Covey was not given a blood-alcohol test until “two or three hours” after the accident. At the time of his arrest, Covey was charged with murder, felony hit-and-run, felony drunk driving and resisting arrest. But the murder charge was later reduced to vehicular manslaughter and the other charges were dropped, Mino said.

On Tuesday, Mino said investigators are still awaiting the results of Covey’s blood-alcohol test, but argued that the delay in administering the test will not hamper the CHP’s efforts to pursue a drunk-driving charge against Covey.

“All indications show alcohol in his system,” he said, without elaborating.

Sharp differences also arose between prosecutors and CHP officials when a CHP spokesman charged that the district attorney’s office downplayed Rossi’s death and failed to arraign Covey within 48 hours, as required by law.

“We’re not interested in engaging in second-guessing, but the fact is that the CHP accident report was incomplete,” Casey said. “The (prosecutor) who reviewed the report determined there wasn’t enough information there to pursue a prosecution.”

Casey added that it was CHP officials who later reduced the murder charge to vehicular manslaughter.

Mino attempted to smooth over the differences between the two law enforcement agencies.

“We’ve got somebody working on it full time, completing the questions that the district attorney has directed to us. We will have all that information available when the final report is in. . . . We’re making sure that everything is complete,” said Mino.

Rossi’s husband, Tom Rossi, has also criticized the CHP investigation, Mino acknowledged.

“We have contacted the family and assured them that we’re doing everything possible to complete the investigation,” said Mino.

Tom Rossi could not be reached for comment.