Driver Charged In Biscayne Blvd Hit & Run
MIAMI (CBS4) - A Miami-Dade Judge delivered harsh words Thursday to a Delray Beach man who is accused of drunk driving when he struck and nearly killed a pedestrian in Miami.
An arrest report says 33-year-old Robert Sinn told Police that he "fell asleep" at the wheel before his white Chevrolet impala jumped a curb, knocked down a pole and then struck the victim on Biscayne Boulevard at Northeast 64th St. as the victim was standing on the sidewalk with a bag of groceries.
Witnesses say the victim, Jermaine Todd Campbell, 40, was thrown some 30 feet and was found wrapped around a bus stop pole at the scene.
The report also says Sinn got out of his car and went over to the badly-injured Campbell as he lay on the ground and yelled at him. Then he went back to his car and left, the report says. They say an "alert motorman" stopped Sinn just a few blocks away from the accident scene on Northeast 64th St. at Northeast 7th Ave.
After Judge Ariana Fajardo announced some of the charges against Sinn in bond court, she took a few minutes to read the arrest report. And then she said, "Some of the allegations are very disturbing. The allegations from the A Form are that he struck the pedestrian. He got out of his car. He went over to the pedestrian and yelled at the pedestrian and left."
At the crash scene, veteran Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll was also concerned.
"You would think the reaction would be that you did something wrong," he told CBS4's Peter D'Oench. "And because of that, you would check on someone's well being and then call 911. He didn't do that."
According to the arrest report, Sinn told police he "fell asleep at the wheel" and then asked an officer, "Is the guy I hit going to be ok."
There are nine charges against Sinn including DUI with serious bodily injury to another person, leaving the scene of a crash with an injury, driving with a suspended license and DUI with damage to property or a person.
Disturbed by the allegations, Judge Fajardo raised Sinn's bond to $105,000. And she told him that if he was able to post that bond, he would not be able to drive or go to parties and would be under house arrest.
Sinn told the Judge that his only relative in South Florida is a brother who lives in Palm Beach. He said he came to Miami on Wednesday to visit his girlfriend. He said he was an investment advisor and earns $38,000 a year.
According to testimony in court, Sinn had been arrested for domestic battery in 2011. A check of records showed other arrests and citations for driving with a suspended license, lacking proof of insurance and speeding.
Campbell is in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
An unidentified manager in a building at 6400 Biscayne Boulevard told D'Oench that she believes the accident was captured by surveillance cameras on her building and possibly by a camera tied to a light at that intersection. But she said police had recovered whatever surveillance tape there was from the scene and said she could not release any tape.
Reyes said it was not known if police were going to release any tape or not to the media.
