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: the 13th juror

Apparently in Tampa, it's OK to run over and kill the homeless

In the case of a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a homeless woman three months ago, all roads lead to a posh home on Davis Islands, police say.

That's where, Tampa police say, they found the maroon SUV that they think hit 33-year-old Melissa Sjostrom as she limped across a street on Feb. 8.

A paint chip from the damaged vehicle matched one found at the scene like a "jigsaw puzzle," a detective wrote in his report.

A teenager living at the house told her parents she had been involved in an accident, and video from the Selmon Crosstown Expressway put the SUV - undamaged, at the time - near the scene of the hit and run a few minutes before it happened.

Jordan Valdez, 16 at the time, was never charged in connection with Sjostrom's death, though she was cited for careless driving. On Tuesday, even that fell through: A judge dismissed the citation when no one from the Tampa Police Department showed up to testify.

Read the Tampa Tribune article here.

Full post as published by the 13th juror on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).