“It’s hard on me because I’m not getting a lot of information. It just a long waiting game,” said Janet Finfrock of Springfield Twp.
“They can take as long as they need to take as long as they bring the right person to justice. I want the right person to pay for this.”
Pierce’s death was the fifth hit-skip fatality in Clark County since 2007; and between 2006-2010, nearly 260 injury hit-and-run crashes in both Clark and Champaign counties have gone unsolved.
Pierce was killed May 4 on Springfield-Xenia Road when he was struck by a southbound vehicle as he was walking home from Wayside Tavern, 2288 S. Yellow Springs St.
The incident was captured on video by the bar’s surveillance camera and the tape was confiscated by Ohio Highway Patrol investigators the same night, Wayside Tavern employees said.
On May 5, authorities recovered a car linked to a home owned by James A. Berry, a former prosecutor. But officials have yet to name a suspect.
Depending on witnesses and other evidence left at the scene, fatal hit-skip and other traffic fatalities often require lengthy investigations because they’re so complex, Prosecutor Andy Wilson said.
“Traffic cases are a little different than investigating a bank robbery because there’s more science and reconstruction involved, so they typically take more time,” Wilson said.
Wilson recused himself from the Pierce case May 10 and sent it to Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Dan J. Cable, citing a conflict of interest with the suspect.
But he spoke last week about previous fatal hit-skip and traffic cases.
Wilson said investigations can include reconstruction of the crash, paint chip analysis, speed analysis, and toxicology tests of both the victim and suspect.
He said once a vehicle has been recovered, determining the driver of a vehicle comes down to “good old fashioned police work.”
OHP officials say hit-skip crashes occur in rural, suburban and urban areas and reasons motorists flee vary.
“It could be because they’re scared and they just don’t know what to do; they’re concerned because they don’t have a valid driver’s license or because they’re driving impaired,” said OHP Public Affairs Commander Lt. Anne Ralston, who is not connected to the Pierce case.
Traffic accidents that kill pedestrians are rare — with OHP reporting 81 in 2010. But rarer, still, is surveillance video of these crashes, Wilson said.
Once a suspect is named, the person can be charged with hit-skip, a third-degree felony and face a sentence that ranges from probation to five years in prison and fines of up to $10,000, Wilson said.
But, Jackie Spears, 62, and Phyllis Wallace, 56, of New Carlisle, had hoped the driver who struck and killed their sister would be sentenced to 10-15 years.
“Somebody gets caught with drugs and they do 25 years. This is leaving the scene and leaving somebody to die and they only get five years,” Spears said.
Both started a petition in 2007 to stiffen the penalties for hit-and-run drivers after their sister Audrey Williams, 57, was killed by a hit-and-run driver Dec. 16, 2007, as she walked along Gerlaugh Road.
Christopher Miller, now 27, was sentenced to five years in the Dayton Correctional Institution for her death.
Wallace said Williams was among several family members to die in hit-and-run crashes. She said when drivers receive short sentences it feels like a “slap in the face.”
“It took a toll on all of us,” Spears said.
Wallace added: “Time has helped. It gets a little easier. But it’s still there — the senselessness of it.”
Finfrock buried her son days after his death, but she still can’t believe he’s gone.
One of the toughest days was when Pierce’s 2-year-old daughter, Olivia, asked for him.
“I told her he went to live with Jesus.”
A fund has been set up to offset Pierce’s funeral expenses. Donations can be made to Littleton & Rue Funeral Home, 830 N. Limestone St. Checks should reference James Pierce.
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