Feb. 24, 2024 around 10am. eastbound Cloud near 7th Ave, New River. Pedestrian (jogger) killed.

The driver of a massive pickup truck was somehow driving along the shoulder when they struck and killed a jogger. Cloud Road there is a two lane road with a massively wide gravel shoulder (the google street view of Feb ’25 shows the Mancuso’s memorial). It is highly unlikely a jogger jogging along Cloud Road would be anywhere near the fog line. Anyway, here’s azfamily’s account of crash, which is helpful in understanding the timeline of events:

On Feb. 24, 2024, Moore was driving a pickup truck around 10 a.m. in the area of Seventh Avenue and Cloud Road when he hit 43-year-old Lisa Mancuso, who was jogging along the shoulder. He returned to the scene shortly after the collision but made a U-turn and fled when witnesses confronted him. Mancuso died at the scene.

Moore apparently went to his home off 11th Avenue and Cloud Road in north Phoenix, parked his truck in a place where he usually didn’t, and went to bed.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office released a surveillance photo of the pickup truck the following day. Investigators said Moore’s dad, a Phoenix police officer, called police and said that Moore may be involved. Moore turned himself in, and he was arrested on March 18, 2024.

Court documents said Moore, who was 20 at the time, was drinking from 11 p.m. to at least 8 a.m. before the crash.

Se we’ve got (underage) drinking, underage driving and driving (the legal limit is zero), and hit and run. The plea deal worked out amounts to 4 years prison for manslaughter and hit and run.

But wait, you might ask, aren’t those serious felonies? Why yes, they are both class 2 felonies. Doesn’t F2 dangerous Manslaughter have a presumptive 10.5 years?  Why yes, yes it does. (however non-dangerous manslaughter doesn’t) Hmmm. Sensing something might be fishy, County Attorney apparently pre-emptively  had this to say, from azcentral (the Arizona Republic), with some formatting inserted:

When asked about the case during an April 23 press conference, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell set out to “remind people of the facts.” She said that

1) the “well-respected” officials who took Jacob’s blood alcohol content levels placed it below the legal limit.

2) Additionally, other experts said Jacob’s view was obstructed by a slower vehicle in front of him,

3) and the medical examiner ruled the incident an accident rather than a homicide.

“In terms of preferential treatment, I would remind everybody that it was the father, a police officer, who helped turn his son in and so, you know, it’s a tragic situation no matter whose son it is, but we’re not going to pay attention to the father’s role or the father’s work,” Mitchell said when asked about the connection between the defendant and the Phoenix Police Department. “We’re going to do the right thing, but we have to base it on the facts that we have.”

One: Huh? It seems to me from the timeline the defendant was in the wind for a day or more. How could he have possibly had an “official” DUI test, and furthermore how could that have possibly been applicable to the time of the crash? Who is this official?

Two: what a load of nonsense — why was he driving on the shoulder? Was he trying to pass on the gravel shoulder? And who are these “other experts”; Were they experts for the defense? (might be biased, don’t you think?)

Three: this is just silly. The cause of death is getting crushed to death by a giant pickup truck. Nothing more nothing less. What would the ME know about the condition of the driver? (I would imagine, nothing).  We don’t have such a thing as a coroner’s inquest here. [UPDATE: yes, see ME report, below]

It’s well-understood that drunk drivers (What’s the legal limit for an underaged driver?) can benefit when killing/injuring by fleeing the scene. Alcohol leaves the body within a few hours. Just go hide out for a little while, then “turn yourself in” (well, or not). [note that this doesn’t always work, just most of the time]

This is ADOT incident 4154281.

The ME Report

Only because County Attorney Mitchell brought it up here’s exactly what the ME report says:

… the cause of death is multiple blunt impact injuries.
The manner of death is accident.

…The determination of manner of death is a forensic determination by the pathologist predicated upon the totality of all then-known forensic evidence and other circumstances surrounding the cause of death; it is not a legal determination of criminal or civil responsibility of any person(s) for the death.

I repeat, “the manner of death… is not a legal determination“.

Mitchell knows this.

The report says absolutely nothing about the driver. I assume ANY traffic victim’s autopsy says the same: “the manner of death is accident” regardless of circumstances. (in other words: it’s accidental only in the sense that as far as the ME knows, the person wasn’t killed on purpose. And which is just another reason never to call a traffic crash an accident! #crashnotaccident

Criminal Case

Superiorcourt.maricopa.gov CR2024-006611; Case minutes.

Given the plea deal discussed in the news article, it’s probably all baked in the cake. A judge has to “approve” it, and sentencing still has to happen.