Police: Bensalem man, 20, tried to hide evidence of fatal Croydon hit and run

Five days after a Croydon grandfather was killed crossing a street headed to a neighbor’s Christmas Eve party, Kevin Michael Baker Jr. and his father turned in his cherry red Chevy Silverado to the Bristol Township Police Department.

Later, Kevin Baker Sr. would testify that he brought the vehicle to the police station because it looked a lot like the one in screenshots circulating on social media as the vehicle involved in a Dec. 24 fatal hit and run accident.

Father and son signed consent for the police to inspect the pickup, which Baker bought brand new in October. When the department’s accident investigator looked over the car he noticed two things about it.

The first was damage to the driver’s side bumper area and fog light consistent with the crash on State Road near Fourth Avenue that killed 65-year-old John Dugan.

The second thing that caught his eye was that the vehicle was “super clean.”

Later, authorities would allege the spotless condition of the pickup truck was intentional.

On Monday, a Bucks County Grand Jury recommended charging the 20-year-old Baker with Dugan’s death. The Bensalem man is facing charges he most likely would have avoided if he stopped the night of the accident, according to the lead police investigator.

In its 13-page presentment released Monday evening, the grand jury members also noted that they felt Baker’s father and girlfriend did not provide “entirely honest accounts of the events" before and after the accident. They have not been charged with a crime.

“In comparing their testimony before us to the testimony of others and additional evidence presented, this investigating grand Jury did not find their testimony completely truthful and/or forthcoming,” according to the presentment, which provided new details about the accident.

Dugan and his fiancé, Christine Mezzatenta, had just left their apartment in the 400 block of State Road near Fourth Avenue headed across the street to a friend’s Christmas Eve party shortly after 5 p.m.

Dugan started across the two-lane road first, but fell after he started to run. A cancer survivor, and diabetic, Dugan had problems with his legs and feet that caused him to fall sometimes, Mezzatenta said.

When she saw Dugan fall, Mezzatena ran toward him when a vehicle traveling west on State Road nearly hit her.

The driver did run over Dugan leaving him with tire marks across his back and a fatal head injury, according to police. He was rushed to Torresdale-Jefferson Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Bristol Township Police officer and crash investigator Kenneth Margerum would later determine that the driver of the striking vehicle was not criminally responsible for Dugan's death.

The area where Dugan was crossing the road did not have a marked pedestrian crosswalk. He was also dressed in dark clothing, which made it harder to see him in an area where the lighting was already poor, Margerum concluded. The driver also did not appear to be exceeding the posted 35-mph speed limit.

The driver probably would have received only a traffic ticket, if he remained at the accident scene, authorities would say Monday. But he left the scene, they said.

“He should have stopped,” said Mezzatenta on Monday night outside her job at O’Flaherty’s Pub, not far from where the hit and run happened.

“I’m glad they found him and he turned himself in. I heard he just turned 20 in March, so he had a birthday. But I didn’t have John for Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day. It’s hard not to have him here.”

While it took four months to bring charges, Bristol Township police had Baker Jr. on their radar almost immediately after surveillance video from nearby businesses was released, according to the presentment.

Cameras at a gas station in the 500 block of State Road showed the accident as it happened and the suspect vehicle — the red Chevy Silverado with black wheels — driving west on State Road as it approached Third Avenue. The video showed Dugan lying in the road as the truck approached, according to the presentment.

The pickup jumps a little, likely at the point of impact, and then the driver briefly hits the brakes before continuing west into Bensalem. No vehicle parts were found at the accident scene, according to police.

A key piece of video evidence showed the pickup with all working front lights as it passed a State Road gun shop about an eighth of a mile from the accident scene, according to the presentment. Video of the same pickup captured at Brookside Avenue and State Road, the next intersection after the accident scene, showed the driver’s side fog light was out.

More video evidence would be turned into police by a tipster. It showed Baker Jr. and his girlfriend cleaning the front of the red Silverado at a family member’s home on Dec. 28. The two were paying particular attention to the front bumper on the driver’s side, according to the presentment.

Another video the tipster provided showed Baker under the front driver’s side of the pickup using duct tape to fix the fog light.

Police also interviewed family members of the Bakers, who live on Cedar Avenue, about a quarter mile from the accident scene. They told police that the Bakers, their son Kevin and girlfriend visited their home on Christmas Eve.

But Kevin Baker Jr. and his girlfriend only stayed about five minutes before leaving around 5 p.m. to go back to Bensalem, according to the presentment.

Before the grand jury, Kevin Baker Sr. testified that his son was out shopping with his girlfriend on Christmas Eve and his family does not get together on Christmas Eve.

Baker Sr. also told the grand jury that the first time he learned his son’s truck may have been involved in leaving the scene of an accident was the night before they turned over the truck.

He also testified that he went to look at his son’s truck on Dec. 28 at the family member’s home, and didn’t notice any damage to it. He also told the grand jury his son rear ended another vehicle about two weeks before the Dec. 24 accident.

“When asked if he had discussed the incident involving the red Chevy Silverado with his son, Kevin Baker Sr. pleaded the Fifth, and refused to answer the question,” according to the presentment.

Baker’s girlfriend also told the grand jury that she and Baker Jr. were together from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve and they went shopping at a mall, though she couldn’t recall which one, and then visited Baker’s aunt on Cedar Avenue in Croydon.

She also claimed that she was asleep in the front passenger seat of the pickup around 5 p.m.

“If something happened I wouldn’t know. I was asleep,” she testified.

The girlfriend also testified that Baker Jr. told her that the “little dent” on the bottom of the front bumper and the broken fog light happened when he was in an accident before Christmas Eve.

But she also contradicted herself when she claimed that she heard Baker and his dad talking about how they handed over the pickup truck and they needed to hire a lawyer, then stated she didn’t know the detail about the accident, “because it was a family matter and did not ask about it when they were all huddled up talking,” the presentment said.

The girlfriend contradicted herself again when she testified that she didn’t find out that someone was killed in a hit and run accident by a red truck on Christmas Eve until after New Year's Day, according to the document.

Baker Jr. was arraigned Monday on charges of accidents involving death or personal injury, a felony, and tampering with physical evidence, and failure to stop and render aid. He was released after posting 10% of $150,000 bail. Court records did not list an attorney for Baker.

Exclusive interviews with familyDaughter waits for answers in hit-and-run that killed father

The announcement of an arrest brought some relief to Dugan's daughter Jamie Santos, but she is hoping to get a chance to tell Baker to his face how his actions have impacted her and her family.

"I just wish nothing is going to bring my dad back, but I guess what would make me feel better mentally is I can speak how I feel and he will see and hear me at the same time."

Santos added that she is someone who believes in giving people second chances, but she added the suspect took his time coming forward making an already unbearable situation for her family worse.

“He had the opportunity to do the right thing for the last four months,” she said. “He had four months to do the right thing. I don’t think I can forgive him.”

Santos, a mother of two, called her father her best friend and their bond like no other. She was with him through his cancer battle and other health issues.

"I did everything in my power to keep him here as long as I can and now he's not here,” she added. “It's been a nightmare the last four months. This has impacted our family a lot. I truly think he was the glue that held us all together."

Staff columnist J.D. Mullane contributed to this story

More about John Dugan'He had a heart of gold:' Family of Croydon man killed in Christmas Eve hit-and-run seeks help to ID driver

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem man charged in hit & run death of John Dugan of Croydon