Man Allegedly Confesses To Hit & Run Of Jogger, Victim Is Improving
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) - A woman is improving after being hit while jogging along University Boulevard Tuesday morning in Highlands Ranch.
Police say the driver, identified as Markus Valentino Lide, 32, left the scene and has turned himself in.
Tina Benner, 50, has been upgraded from critical to serious condition.
Lide reportedly contacted an attorney and negotiated his surrender to police Wednesday night. He appeared in court Thursday morning to be advised of four felony charges.
Lide told deputies he was driving on University Boulevard Tuesday when he was "jarred awake" by something. He said he stopped his vehicle and got out, saw damage to his car but nothing else. It was after his wife showed him news reports of a jogger who was hit by a vehicle that the two revisited the scene together, and he says he began crying.
In the confession Lide told deputies he believes he struck her, but doesn't remember it, and didn't know it at the time. He said he works for United Road Services and drives out of state to deliver vehicles and had just returned from a long trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. He then went to visit a friend who was distraught at approximately 3 a.m. He left the friend's home around 5 a.m.
Benner has undergone surgery at St. Anthony Hospital.
A deputy who responded to the scene described finding tire marks where Lide jumped the curb, but no signs of braking.
A judge set what she called the standard bond in the case -- $12,000, which Lide's attorney says he will post soon.
According to court documents, Lide told deputies he smokes hash and concentrate marijuana every other day, usually nightly to sleep. But he said he wasn't smoking before the crash.