California: Suspect in tow-truck driver’s death pleads not guilty
A Stockton man pleaded not guilty Monday to charges stemming from a February hit-and-run collision that killed a tow-truck driver in West Sacramento.
Ronald Freeman Demello, a 62-year-old big-rig driver, is due back in court Dec. 10 for setting of a preliminary hearing date. He’s charged with hit and run resulting in death and using a cell phone while driving in connection with the Feb. 23 death of Michael “Mikey” Bower of Dixon.
Free on bail, Demello sat on one side of the courtroom audience waiting for his case to be called, while across the aisle sat about a dozen of Bower’s relatives and friends, each wearing matching black T-shirts printed with “Slow down … move over. Obey the law,” a reference to the California law that requires motorists to slow down or change lanes for stationary emergency vehicles.
“He was a good husband, a good father,” Jaime Bower, Mikey Bower’s widow, said outside the courtroom following Demello’s arraignment. She added that she was “happy” to hear a suspect had been identified in the case.
The couple had been married for about five years and had two young daughters, who accompanied their mother to court Monday.
California Highway Patrol investigators say Bower, 29, an employee of Octavio’s Towing in Dixon, was packing up emergency reflectors after repairing his disabled tow truck that February night when he was struck on westbound Highway 50 near Jefferson Boulevard.
The CHP requested an arrest warrant for Demello in late September but have not disclosed how they identified him as the driver who allegedly hit Bower. His attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, declined to comment at length Monday about the case.
“We have a lot of discovery we need to go through,” Chavez-Ochoa said. “Once we’re done with that, we’ll have a better idea of what’s going to happen.”
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