Macon man jailed in traffic death of moped driver was once accused in hit-and-run DUI
A 33-year-old Macon man was arrested Thursday, charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a woman who last year was critically injured and later died after cops said the moped she was riding was struck by a car that kept on going.
It was not immediately clear what led Bibb County sheriff’s investigators to charge Rajah Akeem Smith in connection with the Sept. 14 incident on Lynmore Avenue near Desoto Drive and Broadway in southeast Macon.
According to jail records he was being held without bond Friday at the county lockup.
The woman who was killed, Pamela Irene Gunnels, of Macon, died Nov. 5 of blunt-force trauma, having never recovered from her injuries, Coroner Leon Jones said.
Sheriff’s officials at the time of the September crash that led to her death said in a statement that “an unknown subject traveling east on Lynmore struck the 59-year-old female and failed to stop. ... The suspect vehicle is a red Toyota product with damage to the front end, possibly the driver side.”
In May 2010, Smith, jailed late Thursday morning, was formally accused by Bibb prosecutors of alleged crimes in August 2008 that included theft by receiving a motor vehicle, DUI and hit-and-run for a crash involving the stolen car, a 1996 Nissan Sentra, court records show.
In October 2010, the DUI and hit-and-run charges were dismissed and Smith pleaded guilty to the theft charge. He was sentenced as a first-offender.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 1:27 PM.