Arrest made in fatal Lilburn hit-and-run
A Gwinnett County man is jailed on charges that he killed a mother and daughter in a drunken hit-and-run with his pickup truck.
Police said the woman and 6-year-old girl were walking on a sidewalk when they were hit Thursday night by a pickup truck. The truck driver then drove off.
Spencer T. Prigmore, 43, is charged with two counts of first-degree vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated in the deaths Thursday night of Maria Cervantes Maldonado, 36, and her daughter, Melissa.
Police said Prigmore had cut off and hit another vehicle in a lane change before fatally striking the Lilburn woman and her daughter on Lawrenceville Highway and speeding away. The deaths occurred about 6:30 p.m.
According to a Lilburn police incident report, Prigmore was driving west on Lawrenceville Highway when he “made a sudden lane change from the other westbound lane” and “barely” struck another vehicle behind him before he drove onto the sidewalk.
Some witnesses followed the truck and told police where its driver eventually pulled over, police said.
Prigmore and a woman were inside the pickup, police spokeswoman Nikki Perry said.
“Both subjects gave outward physical manifestations of being under the influence of some type of intoxicants,” Perry said.
Perry said Prigmore refused to submit to an alcohol and drug test, and a search warrant was issued to allow officers to draw a blood sample to send to the GBI Crime Lab.
The woman in the truck with Prigmore was not arrested, police said.
Prigmore has six prior arrests in Gwinnett County, including a battery charge in 2006 and a charge of providing alcohol to a minor in 2009, according to court records.
He also faces charges in Thursday’s deaths of failure to report an accident, causing death or injury, and reckless driving. He is in the Gwinnett County jail without bond.
