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A suspect is in custody nearly five months after a hit-and-run crash that left a motorcyclist dead in Arlington.
Chuco Mario Martinez II, 27, was arrested early Sunday in Castle Hills, just north of downtown San Antonio, on a charge of accident involving death.
Arlington officers were called the evening of Oct. 13 to the scene of the crash at East Sanford and North Mesquite streets. According to police, a black Dodge Ram with a large orange toolbox that was headed east on Sanford ran a stop sign and struck a northbound motorcycle on Mesquite.
The pickup fled. The motorcyclist, 23-year-old Marcus Garcia, was pronounced dead at the crash site.
Witnesses provided police with a possible license plate for the pickup, and authorities eventually determined it was being used by three construction workers at a job site in Arlington, an arrest-warrant affidavit says.
When an officer called one of those workers several hours after the crash, he and a second worker took the pickup to the police station. Both said that the third worker — Martinez — left the construction site to get dinner but returned several hours later without food and was acting strange, the affidavit says.
A police investigator noted damage to the pickup “containing blood and bodily tissues,” the affidavit says.
About a week later, police in Uvalde reported that an informant told them that Martinez had admitted being involved in a fatal crash and that he planned to flee to Mexico to avoid arrest, according to the affidavit. An anonymous caller also told police that Martinez had confessed to his involvement in the wreck and said he panicked when he saw the motorcyclist motionless on the ground, the affidavit says.
Martinez was being held in the Bexar County jail Monday with bail set at $35,000, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.