New York Post

Hit-run bust after 9 mo.

- By KEVIN FASICK, JASMIN ROZA and CAROLL ALVARADO Additional reporting by Dean Balsamini

Nine months after Giovanni Nin was killed by a hit-and-run driver in The Bronx, his devastated family learned Saturday that cops have arrested a suspect.

Victor Pelaez, 44, tried to cover his tracks after the incident by reporting his BMW stolen, but keen-eyed detectives, and cellphone records tripped him up, police said.

“I’m shaking, I’m shaking. I have to put my head together,” Nin’s heartbroke­n mother, Raisa Jiminez, 50, told The Post, trying to process the news of the arrest.

“The last nine months have been a nightmare,” she said as she opened the mailbox and held a piece of mail, crying. “The cable bill is still in his name.”

Pelaez stood stone-faced Saturday at his Bronx Criminal Court arraignmen­t for the June 11 incident that killed the FedEx worker affectiona­tely known as “Gio.”

He was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, and did not enter a plea. He’s due back in court Wednesday.

Nin’s relatives were furious that the judge set bail at $15,000.

“It’s ridiculous . . . It’s outrageous,” fumed Nin’s uncle, Alcides Urena, 44.

Urena said Jiminez is “not the person that she used to be . . . She’s a sad person now . . . Now it’s like they turned the lights off.”

Nin, 26, was killed by a silver 2003 BMW X5 heading east at 12:40 a.m. on June 11 as he biked to his girlfriend’s house during a break between shifts at the FedEx facility on Zarega Avenue.

He was pronounced dead at the scene at East Tremont and Mayflower avenues.

Police said Pelaez reported the BMW stolen, but detectives spotted him behind the wheel of the car Aug. 10, and cellphone records reveal Pelaez was in the vicinity of the incident at the time it happened.

The NYPD’s collision investigat­ion team used surveillan­ce video and pieces of the vehicle left at the scene to track down Pelaez. He was arrested Friday at 1:24 a.m., police said.

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