SUNLAND : Man Is Charged in Hit-and-Run Death
A Sunland man was charged Tuesday with manslaughter and felony hit-and-run driving in a weekend traffic accident that killed a 70-year-old Sun Valley woman as she was raking her front lawn, Los Angeles police said.
Marco Garcia, 19, is expected to be arraigned today in San Fernando Municipal Court. Garcia, a horse groomer, is accused of running over Luba Vartapetian outside her Art Street home Saturday morning and then speeding away, Sgt. John O’Toole said.
Garcia was brought to the Police Department’s Foothill Division on Monday by his employers, who questioned him about the incident because he matched a description of the driver involved in the incident. Garcia, who is being held at Van Nuys Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail, told police he hit something, but did not know what it was at the time, O’Toole said.
O’Toole said Garcia told police he was speeding through the neighborhood at the time of accident because he was in a hurry to get to a relative’s birthday party.
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