A few days ago an article was posted here by had_enuf about two Ptt County Brothers killed on Old River Road . I have been trying to research to see if the drunk hispanic male driver is legal or not. As of yet no luck. BUT read the follow-up article I just located on this case and tell me if you see something very strange in it.

Authorities continuing investigation

By Erin Rickert, The Daily Reflector

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

The two were inseparable, and each had a love for basketball that kept them on the court nearly five days a week.

Last Saturday, 16-year-old Travis Lamont Swinnely and his brother, 14-year-old Erik Tomas Swinnely, were going through the motions of a typical weekend – incorporating a few hours of basketball into their afternoon.

That day, in the early afternoon, the young men were finishing a friendly wrestling match in the front yard of their Belvior home. Each had uttered the words, "I love you," to their mother, Sharon, and gave her a kiss.

As both Swinnely boys piled into a car for the short trip to Eastwood Trailer Park, where the two liked to shoot hoops, Sharon reminded the boys to call home for a ride.

When Sharon's phone rang a few hours later, it was not her sons. It was a trooper from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol calling to deliver every parents worst nightmare. Her boys were dead.

The Swinnely teens were killed Saturday afternoon while walking home along the center median of the U.S. 264 Bypass.

Trooper Jason Brown said the two were just several hundred feet from the overpass where Old River Road crosses U.S. 264 when a 1994 Mercury Grand Marquis swerved into the median and struck the brothers.

The man police believe was driving the vehicle, 20-year-old Winterville resident Marcos Cruz, fled the scene – hitching a ride from a passing motorist several feet from where the incident occurred, according to witness statements.

Brown, the investigating trooper on the case, said Monday that though he has looked into several leads, Cruz has still not been located.

Brown said Cruz's license was revoked months earlier after he was found driving while under the influence.

If located, Brown said, Cruz could face two counts of murder.

Another Hispanic male, 50-year-old Rodolfo Ramon, Cruz's friend, was in the Grand Marquis when it struck the brothers.

Brown said Monday that though Ramon gave conflicting statements to troopers – first saying he was a passenger, then later the driver – at this point in the investigation, troopers "have ruled him out as the driver."

As of right now, Ramon will face no charges in connection with the two teens' deaths, Brown said.

Brown said alcohol is a factor in the accident. Ramon was "very, very intoxicated" at the time of the incident and a case of Corona beer containing several open bottles was found in the back seat, Brown said.

"This is just devastating," Sharon said Monday as she looked at the pictures of her boys. "Somebody has to pay for this. That's two of my boys."

Sharon said Travis was a junior at North Pitt High School, excited about the weightlifting class he had just started and was preparing to celebrate his 17th birthday on Sept.14.

Erik, who one day hoped to join the United States Air Force, was making arrangements to begin his freshman year in the Pitt County school system after Sharon said she regained custody earlier this summer. He would have also celebrated a birthday in just a matter of weeks on Oct. 2.

"They were real, real close," Sharon said. "They did everything together. They played ball together. Everything. They hung together."

While funeral services have not been set, a crisis counseling team is scheduled to be at North Pitt today to meet with faculty and students who may be struggling with the loss.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Marcos Cruz is asked to call the Highway Patrol at 1-800-441-6127.


The Swinnely brothers' lives were not the first to be taken by a hit-and-run driver in recent months.

On Dec. 4, 2004, 16-year-old Pitt County resident Michael Staton was walking with a friend on the eastbound shoulder of Old River Road when a westbound Dodge Intrepid crossed the center line and hit him. Officials believe Jose Carmen Hernandez, 29, may have been driving the green 1994 Intrepid that hit Staton.

Staton was only about two miles from his home in Pacific Circle when he was killed.

The vehicle was found later, abandoned in the woods off Sheppard Mill Road outside of Stokes.

Highway Patrol is still looking for Hernandez in connection with Staton's death. Those with information are asked to call the local Highway Patrol at 1-800-441-6127.


Erin Rickert can be contacted at erickert@coxnc.com and 329-9566.


had_enuf post:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-9288.html

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