Cobb County police have arrested two people in a fatal hit-and-run motorcycle wreck Aug. 20.
Brandon Michael Weston, 32, of Smyrna and Pamela Kay Rice, 41, of Marietta were booked into the Cobb County jail Tuesday on charges of 2nd degree vehicular homicide; hit and run; tampering with evidence; and several other charges, Cobb police spokesman Dana Pierce said Wednesday. Weston was also charged with several traffic-related offenses. Both are being held without bond, Pierce said.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by Channel 2 Action News, Weston owned a 1987 silver Porsche 944 but did not have it registered and had no insurance.
The warrant also says that after the fatal hit and run, he and Rice conspired to have the car taken to a repair shop in Alabaster, Ala., where the damage was to be repaired. The car shop's paperwork was doctored to say the work was done before the hit and run, the warrant stated.
Police say Emanuel R. Mitchell, a 31-year-old Norcross resident who was riding a black 1990 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle, died after being struck by two vehicles on I-75 in the southbound lanes near Windy Hill Road.
Mitchell died at the scene.
Sonni Smith, 23, of Atlanta, told police her Mazda 3 struck Mitchell after the driver of a silver Porsche made initial contact with his motorcycle. Smith, who will not be charged, said the Porsche driver fled.
Police had been looking for the Porsche for 10 days.
"Really, the break in the case came when an individual observed the damaged Porsche at a body shop in Alabaster," Pierce said. "When that person became suspicious, they began to research the Internet, and they were keyed in on a lot of the media Atlanta coverage that had occurred on the incident."
That person contacted Alabaster police, who in turn notified Cobb police, who picked up the car late Friday.
Cobb police hit-and-run investigator Chris Ayers said that once a detailed description of the Porsche hit the news last week, the suspects "realized that ‘hey, I've got to do something and get out of here.'"
"They transported the vehicle over to Alabaster and made contact with the body shop," Ayers told the AJC. "They advised the body shop that they wanted some of the evidence destroyed and also, they wanted the vehicle painted a totally different color."
Pierce said that parts that were recovered from the original interstate crime scene were matched to the damaged Porsche at the body shop.
About the Author
