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AMERICAN FORK — Police arrested an American Fork man in connection with a fatal auto-pedestrian, hit-and-run accident earlier this week.
Darrell Allen Day, 37, was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death. He was arrested after contacting police on Wednesday and turning himself in, according to American Fork police.
Detectives had been looking for the driver of a white Dodge Ram pickup truck since Monday night when a 64-year-old man crossing the road in a dark area.
According to a jail booking affidavit, Scott Sleator, who recently moved from Colorado to American Fork, was actually struck by two vehicles, but the second vehicle stayed at the scene. The victim was propelled into on-coming traffic after being hit by the pickup, and was then hit by a second vehicle who attempted to brake but couldn’t stop, the affidavit states.
“We found the pedestrian had been walking in the middle of the road, not in a crosswalk, and in a dark area of the road,” the affidavit states.
After initially slowing down and appearing as though he was about to pull over, Day accelerated and drove off, according to police.
On Tuesday, police released photos of the truck taken from surveillance video from a nearby gas station.
From that video, police “were eventually able to determine the neighborhood the suspect vehicle likely came from. While investigators were canvassing that neighborhood a citizen called into the police department with a tip of who they believed owned the truck,” police stated.
Police say a person who recognized Day’s truck talked to him and encouraged him to turn himself in.
“Day told us that he believed he had struck something like a dog or a deer. Day also admitted to seeing (the second vehicle) run over whatever it was that Day had struck but he did not stop,” the affidavit states.
Day said on Tuesday, an acquaintance sent him copy of a news article of the crash “and called Day out for being involved. Day claimed he discovered at that point that he may have been involved and that what he struck was a person. However, he still failed to report the collision as required by state law,” according to the affidavit. “Day eventually admitted to us he had seen the ‘silhouette of a person’ immediately before ‘impact’ but then tried to talk himself out of the possibility it had been a human. Day told us he did not stop because he was scared and did not want to go to jail.”
At the time of the crash, Day was driving on a suspended license.
In May of 2018 he was charged in West Valley Justice Court with driving on a denied license. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to show up in court, according to court records. That case was still pending as of Thursday, as was a second case filed in 2018 in Taylorsville Justice Court of driving on a denied license.
In 2014, Day was convicted on misdemeanor drug and weapons charges and sentenced to probation, according to court records.
He was also convicted twice of driving on a denied or suspended license in 2003, court records state.
