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Dallas Police Make Arrest In Uptown Fatal Hit & Run

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Officials with the Dallas Police Department will soon be bringing the person they say is responsible for a hit-and-run accident in Uptown that killed a 23-year-old woman back to Texas from Oklahoma.

According to deputies with the Marshall County Sheriff's Office, in Madill, Oklahoma, Dallas police investigators contacted them last night to ask for help finding a car involved in the deadly crash.

After deputies found the car, Dallas detectives joined them and located suspect John Adrian Esparza. The 38-year-old was taken into custody at that time. Police also reportedly arrested Esparza's girlfriend.

In an arrest affidavit, Esparza told Dallas police, that he was out at a club on Cedar Springs and that Spelman simply walked out in front of him on the 2200 block of Cedar Springs Road early Saturday morning. He said he was unable to stop.

Spelman was pronounced dead the scene.

Esparza told police he took off because he was scared.

Rachel Spelman
Rachel Spelman, 23, was run over and left to die alone in the street. (courtesy: Facebook)

Two people Esparza was staying with at a hotel in Dallas called police saying he never came back to the room that night. Esparza then called them the next morning to tell them he was in an accident. They got suspicious when they saw the story on the news, and told police he went to Oklahoma.

According to witnesses, Esparza actually stopped the car, got out, looked at Spelman on the ground, got back in and drove away.

He will be extradited to Dallas where he will face a charge of accident involving death.

 

 

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