‘I HIT A GIRL’
MAN FACES HOMICIDE BY VEHICLE WHILE DUI IN DEATH OF U.D. GIRL, 6
UPPER DARBY >> Police have formally charged a Philadelphia man with drunkenly running over and killing a 6-year-old girl with his truck along a busy Upper Darby road in early March.
Darin Forrest, 53, of the 4600 block of Hawthorne Street in Philadelphia, surrendered to police Tuesday morning to answer to felony counts of homicide by vehicle and homicide by vehicle while DUI, a misdemeanor charge of involuntary manslaughter, two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance and six traffic citations for the March 1 incident. Forrest was trying to back up into a spot in front of Rudy’s Tavern in the 7100 block of Marshall Road when he allegedly ran over first-grade student Jennifer Portillo, who was crossing the street with her family at a non-designated crosswalk.
Magisterial District Judge Robert Burke arraigned Forrest Tuesday morning on the charges, setting bail at 10 percent of $1 million which Forrest could not make. He was remanded to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Concord.
Authorities said Forrest was drinking at Rudy’s before going to another bar called the Waterford Inn on the 6800 block of Ludlow Street in the township and then went back to Rudy’s for more drinks where he was attempting to park his 2012 Lincoln Navigator just after 3:00 p.m. when the accident happened.
According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Detective Matthew Rowles, Forrest had two beers and two other drinks at Rudy’s between 1:23 and 1:50 p.m., having another drink at the Waterford between 2:43 and 2:55 p.m. before coming back to Rudy’s on Marshall Road when he would allegedly strike and kill Portillo with his vehicle.
A toxicology report listed Forrest’s blood alcohol content to be .106, over the legal limit of .08.
Rowles reports in his affidavit that Sgt. Amanda Pombo arrived at the scene of the accident and was approached by Forrest as the operator of the vehicle in the accident.
“Forrest then stated, ‘I hit her’ and Sergeant Pombo observed him make a phone call on his mobile phone where she heard Forrest say, ‘I hit a girl,’” reads a portion of the affidavit.
Witnesses at the scene reported Forrest to be driving “a little fast,” “reversing very fast” and appearing “to be out of it, either under the influence of something or spaced out.” A post-collision inspection by Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Gregory Butler determined Forrest was reversing between 15.9 and 22.6 mph when he struck Portillo.
“The maximum speed the operator accelerated to is not an expected speed to see when parallel parking,” reads Rowles’ affidavit.
Emergency personnel performed CPR on the young girl, eventually transporting her to Delaware County Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead at 3:25 p.m. Forrest was taken to that hospital around 4 p.m. as police waited on a search warrant to get a blood sample to test his blood alcohol content.
“I’m still trying to figure out how the hell did I back up and not see that girl,” he told police en route to the hospital, according to the affidavit. “I don’t make mistakes like that.”
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said a field-sobriety test was not performed at the scene given that a young girl was just run over and killed, but that there was an odor of alcohol on Forrest.
The affidavit says Forrest cooperated with them, signing a non-custodial interview form around 5:45 p.m. the afternoon of the accident and telling Detective Philip Lydon that he saw an open parking meter spot on the street and started backing his vehicle up. Forrest was reversing westbound in the eastbound lanes of Marshall Road “122 to 143 feet away from the open parking spot on a slight curve, strikes the victim and drives over her prior to reaching the destination,” according to the affidavit.
“He was checking his mirrors, heard something and people screaming,” reads the affidavit. “It dawned on him something was wrong, exited his vehicle and observed the little girl and called 911.”
Rowles said Tuesday morning that Forrest was “distraught” over what happened.
As police awaited the results of the blood work, they went through well over 12 hours of surveillance footage from the bars Forrest
visited, and in the areas documenting the routes he drove between the bars. Police received results of the blood work on May 10.
“This (toxicology) report,” says the affidavit, “also indicated that at the time of the crash Forrest’s alertness, sense of care and caution, perception, judgment response time and coordination were measurably impaired by alcohol. As compared to his non-alcoholic state, Mr. Forrest was significantly impaired by alcohol which would have at least casually contributed to this accident.”
Portillo had only lived in the U.S. for about six months before the accident; her family is Honduran. She was a firstgrade student who may
have been sitting in class at Walter M. Senkow Elementary School that March 1 day had school not been closed due to a snow day.
Chitwood called Portillo’s death a tragedy, but it didn’t stop there for her mourning family.
“More tragedy develops when it came time to bury the young girl,” he said at a Tuesday morning press conference. “They wanted the little girl buried in Honduras, and the family didn’t go. They were afraid that they wouldn’t get back into the country. The little girl was buried without any family members attending the funeral.
“That was sad, considering the big scheme of life.”
Officers of the police department collected $500 to help the family, offering the gift to them Monday.
Of the two establishments who served Forrest
that day, Chitwood called them nuisances and wants them to be shut down.
“I met with the owners of both establishments last week,” he said. “I didn’t even mention this (the mounting evidence police collected up to that point against Forrest). Every weekend there’s fights, they’re out of control. The owners are very nice people; the client base is really, really bad.”
Chitwood could not speak to the employees who served Forrest that day, but said Forrest “didn’t look like he was impaired” at the scene of the accident despite the smell of alcohol that officers noticed.
Attorney Joseph Silvestro Jr. is representing Forrest in this case.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled before Magisterial District Judge Harry Karapalides on May 20.