Drivers charged in hit-and-runs
Two Milwaukee men were charged Monday in separate hit-and-run accidents in the city – one that killed a pedestrian and one that left another driver severely injured.
Wayne Conley, 60, is charged with hit-and-run resulting in death for an accident early May 5 on Center Street. He faces up to 15 years in prison and 10 more on supervision if convicted. According to the criminal complaint: Video from a nearby building showed a man carrying two grocery bags stumble into West Center Street at North 23rd Street and collapse in the eastbound lane.
A woman driver stopped after seeing another car stopped with its lights flashing near the man in the street. Another car was approaching and the woman told police she started waving her arms to alert the driver, but the car sped right over the man in the street.
She gave police a description of a small white sedan, and they later found Conley’s white 2004 Mercedes C240 parked on Center Street near North First Street.
Conley got out and asked what he had hit. Told it was a person, Conley expressed disbelief and said he thought it was a tire, and that if it was a person, he must have already been dead.
An autopsy showed the victim, who is not identified in the complaint, died of multiple blunt force injuries consistent with being run over.
The second case involved a May 3 crash at South 35th and West Montana streets.
According to the criminal complaint, police arrived at the scene to find a woman in a Nissan with a shattered leg, ankle and foot that required multiple surgeries. Her two children in the car suffered minor injuries. She said she’d been hit by a red Chevy pickup that was still at the scene.
Using documents found in the truck, and a tip, police found Peter Michael Helfenstein, 42, being treated for a broken arm at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He told police he had taken heroin earlier in the day and didn’t remember much about the accident. Helfenstein faces up to 10 years in prison plus five on extended supervision if convicted.