The Hastings man who was arrested Tuesday for a hit-and-run accident that left a teen badly injured on the side of the road told police he thought he hit a deer, court papers reveal.
Andrew Robinson, 46, is facing a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident with serious injuries after he allegedly struck Maslin Mooney, 14, as he waited for a school bus at 6 a.m. on Jan. 10 in Flagler Estates.
The teen languished on the side of the road for 40 minutes before he was spotted by a passing motorist.
According to an arrest report, Robinson’s family friend alerted police that he was involved in the crash about 13 hours after the incident.
Officers reached Robinson by phone, and he told them he thought he had hit a deer.
He gave deputies the location of his 2017 Dodge Ram truck in Green Cove Springs, and the vehicle was found in a fenced in lot behind an RV.
It was placed there “as if the defendant was trying to conceal it from the roadway,” the arrest report notes.
The truck had damage consistent with the crash scene, and it was hauled away as evidence in the case.
Robinson agreed to meet with St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies for an interview, but declined to answer questions without a lawyer present.
The arrest report noted that he repeated his claim that he thought he had hit a deer.
Police soon retrieved text messages Robinson sent to his girlfriend roughly one hour after the crash.
He told her that “he had hit something, possibly a deer,” the papers state. “No blood, thank God,” he added, telling her that he stopped his vehicle in the early morning darkness but could not see anything amiss.
Around noon, Robinson’s girlfriend texted him a news story on the crash, and he later became distraught to the point that he left work early.
Location data from Robinson’s cell phone indicated that he was in the area of the crash at the time Mooney was hit, and that he didn’t stop and survey the scene as he had told his girlfriend, according to the arrest report.
Detectives believe Robinson was traveling west on Palatka Blvd. and crossed over the center lane divider into the eastbound lane.
“The defendant then struck the victim who was walking in the grass on the south side of the roadway or at most on the edge of the roadway,” the report states.
Robinson had told his girlfriend that he had struck something in the middle of the roadway — but the investigation indicated otherwise, papers state. Mooney’s position on the side of the road, the report notes, is at odds with the defendant’s narrative.
Robinson’s co-worker told police that he was uncharacteristically “nervous and quiet” the day of the crash and began crying later in the day after news reports began to emerge.
“I hit something, I don’t know what it was,” he tearfully told his colleague before leaving.
“The defendant still failed to notify any law enforcement officer for another three hours,” the report notes.
Maslin suffered a “severe brain bleed,” two knocked out teeth that were found in the middle of the road, along with a broken wrist and leg fractures.
“Because of his injuries the victim will have many years of rehabilitation ahead of him and may never cognitively be the same again,” the report states.
Maslin has been removed from an ICU unit and his condition is mproving, according to his church. But the teen faces a long and grueling road ahead.
Robinson is being held on $100,000 bond.
