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Hit-and-run driver surrenders

An Orlando man 'got his affairs in order then turned himself in' to face charges in connection with a fatal accident on Sunday in St. Petersburg.

By ALEX LEARY
Published January 4, 2006

	Sean W. Moody

ST. PETERSBURG - A 24-year-old Orlando man has turned himself in for the New Year's Day hit-and-run accident that killed a woman crossing 34th Street near 18th Avenue S.

Sean W. Moody, who surrendered Tuesday evening, told police that he was in the area to watch the New Orleans Saints play the Buccaneers and got lost after the game.

"He was driving up and down 34th Street trying to find his hotel," police spokesman Bill Proffitt said Wednesday.

Linda J. Cohen, 51, was walking across the street about 6:20 p.m. when she was struck by Moody's 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck. She was thrown to the ground and run over by a second vehicle.

The driver of that car stopped but, police said, Moody left the scene and turned down Queensborough Avenue. Realizing it was a dead end, he went back on 34th Street, then headed north.

"He went back to Orlando and told friends and family he was going to have to spend the rest of his life in jail," Proffitt said. "He got his affairs in order then turned himself in."

He called authorities in Orlando, who told him to contact St. Petersburg police. Investigators described him as "very forthcoming, very remorseful," Proffitt said. "He knew he had done wrong and was ready to take the consequences."

Moody, who had no previous criminal history in Florida, was arrested on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. He was released early Wednesday on $10,000 bail.

If convicted, Moody could face up to 15 years in prison.

Moody did not return a message left on his phone by the Times, and family could not be reached.

Police do not have information or evidence at this point to suggest alcohol was involved in the accident, Proffitt said.

"They say he panicked and he was scared," said Cohen's mother, Alfornia Cohen. "I don't go along with that. He should have stopped. He should be punished but it still won't bring back my daughter."

Cohen was a longtime St. Petersburg resident and had four children, her mother said. She worked at C&J Grocery on 18th Avenue S.

"She was a very loving and sweet person," Alfornia Cohen said. Cohen had a lengthy arrest history dating to the early 1970s, according to state records, but "she was straightening herself around," her mother said.

"I guess this was God's will," she said. "In a way, I'm glad she didn't live and suffer" with injuries.

In a sad coincidence to the story, Cohen's father met a similar fate decades ago, his wife, said, when he was hit and killed by a car in St. Petersburg.

[Last modified January 4, 2006, 17:03:51]