A roofing contractor fatally struck a pedestrian early Friday in Maplewood and smelled of alcohol when investigators caught up with him seven hours later at work in Sleepy Eye, Minn., according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.
Jose Ronald Hernandez Pineda, 46, of Maplewood, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the crash that killed Abdul Bakr Jafar, a 31-year-old from St. Paul who was found lying in the middle of Maryland Avenue near McKnight Road about 4:30 a.m.
Jose Ronald Hernandez Pineda (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
A home’s surveillance video showed that Jafar was struck head-on by a dark-colored van while walking east in the middle of the westbound lane of Maryland Avenue, the complaint says. He was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.
Hernandez Pineda remains at the Ramsey County jail ahead of a first court appearance on the charges, which allege driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene. An attorney for him is not listed in the court file.
A newspaper carrier told police he saw a dark-colored van driving toward him on Maryland Avenue about 4:30 a.m. He then saw a bag lying in the middle of the road and a body further down the road. The van sped west on Maryland toward McKnight.
The carrier turned around, caught up to the van and took photos, including of the back license plate. The van had ladders on top and reflective tape on the back.
The license plate was registered to a blue 2011 Chevrolet Express G3500 and is owned by a roofing company that operates out of a Maplewood home about 1.2 miles from the crash site.
An officer went to the home and saw a different truck in the driveway that registered to Hernandez Pineda’s wife. Driver vehicle services records also showed that Hernandez Pineda lived there.
Investigators contacted the woman, who said she and Hernandez Pineda are going through a divorce and do not live in the same house, the complaint says. She said she received a call in the morning from police, but disconnected it because she thought it was a scam.
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She then called Hernandez Pineda to see if he was OK. He denied hitting anyone, but said he thought he may have hit a deer, the complaint says. She said he usually leaves the Maplewood home between 3 and 4 a.m.
Investigators received location data for Hernandez Pineda’s phone, which was about two hours southwest in Sleepy Eye. Once there, investigators saw a roofing crew working at a home and a Chevrolet Express G3500 van, which had heavy front-end damage, parked nearby.
Hernandez Pineda was arrested at the job site about 11:25 a.m. Officers smelled alcohol on his breath, and a preliminary breath test resulted in .06 BAC reading, the complaint says. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is .08 BAC.
A foreman of a roofing company told police he asked Hernandez Pineda that morning about the front-end damage to the van and that he said “something about there being a lot of deer by his house,” the complaint states.
A sample of Hernandez Pineda’s blood was taken for testing; results are pending.
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