Suspect in hit-and-run death of 16-year-old girl was blackout drunk
A woman accused in a hit-and-run crash in Palm Springsthat killed a Desert Hot Springs teenager nearly a year ago allegedly drank somuch that night that she blacked out and did not notice the damage to hervehicle until the next morning, according to a court document obtained today.
Heather Marie Brents, 30, is free on bail while awaiting a June courtdate, as is her father, who is accused of being an accessory.
Brents and Russell Ted Stienecker, 69, both of Desert Hot Springs,surrendered at the Riverside County Superior Court in Indio on Monday and laterposted $5,000 bail each.
Arrest warrants were issued for both defendants last Wednesday inconnection with the May 21, 2012, crash that killed 16-year-old Zia Hoyos,according to Palm Springs police Sgt. Harvey Reed.
Someone reported a dead female on North Gene Autry Trail, north of EastVia Escuela, about 1:35 a.m. on May 21, 2012. The girl was found lying acrossthe two northbound lanes, about 200 yards north of the intersection of GeneAutry and East Via Escuela.
According to a declaration filed by Palm Springs police Officer StephenWoodward in support of an arrest warrant, Brents “drank herself to blackout”while celebrating with friends that night. She dropped off her friends, thenallegedly struck and killed the pedestrian on Gene Autry on her way home.
She stopped several hundred feet down the road, didn’t see anythingbecause it was dark and went home, according to the declaration. Later thatmorning, she noticed damage to the front of her vehicle, and panicked when shesaw news reports about Hoyos’ death, Woodward wrote.
Officer Eric Goya wrote in another declaration that Brents told herfather, the registered owner of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck she was drivingthat night, that “she believed she was responsible for killing the girl on thenews.”
Stienecker removed the truck’s damaged front grille and covered thevehicle with a tarp, Goya alleged.
Neither called police, according to the officers. A friend of Brentstold police a few weeks after the crash that one of her friends may have struckthe girl, according to Woodward, who said Brents later told investigators thatshe remembered hitting something.
Police found a piece of a Toyota Tacoma at the scene where the victimwas struck, and other pieces in the road that matched a piece found in thevehicle’s backseat, according to Woodward.
The arrest warrants were a culmination of the investigation that startedwhen the girl was found, Reed said.
“The Palm Springs Police Department would like to thank the public fortheir assistance in providing possible tips and leads during the course of theinvestigation,” Reed said last week.
Brents is charged with a felony count of hit-and-run resulting in deathor injury and Stienecker faces a felony count of being an accessory, accordingto court records. Both suspects are scheduled to be arraigned on June 6 at theLarson Justice Center in Indio.
