Man charged with tampering with evidence in DeLand fatal crash

PHOTO COURTESY HOBBS FAMILY
Two arrests — Juliana Hobbs died March 17 after she and a friend were hit by a car while walking on South Spring Garden Avenue. Eight months later, two arrests have been made in connection with the crash.

Two 14-year-olds hit on Spring Garden Avenue; one girl died

By Jen Horton
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 14, 2012 - 4:25:21pm

The Florida Highway Patrol reported Nov. 14 that troopers had arrested 59-year-old James Hugh Hanna III and charged him with tampering with evidence and being an accessory after the fact in connection with the hit-and-run crash that killed 14-year-old Juliana Hobbs and injured her friend, then-14-year-old Rachel Russell.

The fatal crash happened in the evening March 17, as the girls walked along South Spring Garden Avenue in DeLand near Rachel's home.

The Highway Patrol said Hanna is the boyfriend of the woman troopers said was driving the car that hit Juliana and Rachel. Danielle Halverson of DeLand was arrested in October and charged with two felonies: leaving the scene of an accident involving death, and leaving the scene of an accident involving injury. The Highway Patrol said the girls were walking on the wrong side of the road, and that was a factor in the crash.

Halverson was not charged with the crash itself or with causing the girls' injuries; only for leaving the scene.

Hanna was booked into the Volusia County Jail, the Highway Patrol said.

Because of the ongoing investigation, details of the allegations against Hanna that led to his arrest are not yet available, the Highway Patrol said.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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