Bail posted for suspect in fatal Nicetown hit-and-run [video]
A 45-year-old woman from the city’s Fern Rock section surrendered to Philadelphia Police on Thursday and was charged in connection with the fatal Oct. 4 hit-and-run of Ceeanna Pate in Nicetown.
Pate was struck by a speeding vehicle near the intersection of Clarissa and Brunner streets around 11 p.m. in a collision that neighbors likened to the sound of a bomb explosion.
Pate, a 19-year-old who leaves behind two young children, would be declared dead at Temple University Hospital five days later after several of her organs were donated for three transplants.
The suspect’s driving record
Terrie Fleming, 45, of the 5900 block of N. Camac St., surrendered to Accident Investigation Unit investigators on Thursday and was later taken to the Roundhouse.
She is charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter and, among other charges, reckless endangerment.
Court documents state that Fleming was arrested in July 2009 for driving under the influence, a charge for which she entered the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program.
In 2007, she pleaded guilty to an “obedience to traffic-control devices” charge and a year later, she pleaded guilty to several charges including driving an unregistered vehicle.
Ceeanna’s father Steven got word of the suspect surrendering early Thursday afternoon, less than a week after he held a memorial vigil at the site the night before her funeral.
“My life will never be the same,” Pate said at the vigil. “I’ll never see my baby again.”
Fleming, for whom bail was posted late Thursday night, has a preliminary hearing initially scheduled for Nov. 13.
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