Fatal hit-and-run case dismissed in Macon. Witness ‘no longer confident’ in recollection
.jpeg "A judge has agreed to dismiss a hit and run case against a Macon, GA man.")
A Macon judge has agreed to dismiss charges against the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run at a prosecutor’s request, court records show.
Nathan Charles Epps was indicted in June 2022, accused of killing Irene Stubbs by hitting her with a vehicle in 2021. But Assistant District Attorney Kyle Owenby on Monday asked the judge to drop the case because inconsistent testimony from a witness and testing from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation indicated the state wouldn’t be able to “prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to court records.
When the prosecutor met with the witness in July 2024, Owenby noticed “two discrepancies with her recollection of the events in question,” court records show.
“She is now no longer confident about what she saw the night of the incident and could not say for certain that it was the defendant who drove the car that struck the victim,” Owenby said.
The other discrepancy Owenby noticed was the witness’ “repeated insistence” about the events that led to Stubbs’ death, which were that she saw a car that looked similar to the one Epps’ mother drove, driven by someone who looked like Epps, but it was also a dark night and it was hard to see anything, according to Owenby’s request to dismiss.
A fiber sample taken from the car and a fiber of Stubbs’ clothing were sent to GBI labs for testing, but they didn’t match the fiber from the victim’s clothing that night, court records show. The GBI said the fiber found in the car was “inconsistent in color, microscopic and/or optical characteristics.”
Judge Jeffery Monroe granted the prosecutor’s request, court records show.
