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Man who left scene of UTV accident that injured teen sentenced

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WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — A Fourth of July hit-and-run accident resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for a Wichita Falls man who fled the scene.

40-year-old Kelly Hawkins was sentenced after pleading guilty Thursday, September 9, in 30th District Court.

The DPS said on July 4, 2020, several teens were in a Polaris UTV on their way to help with a flat tire on another vehicle on Friberg Church Road.

A teen said as they were pulling up to the vehicle with the flat, a car going the opposite direction veered over and struck the utility vehicle. A girl sitting in the rear fell out and landed on the pavement, suffering a head injury.

The teens said the other car stopped, and the driver said he was going to pull into a driveway, but then he fled the scene.

Witnesses provided a partial tag number, and that and other evidence at the scene led troopers and Burkburnett police to a home on Sycamore Drive in Burkburnett.

Hawkins was located and charged with leaving the scene.

Hawkins has previous convictions for Evading Arrest, Assault, Auto Theft and several drug-related convictions.

Tom Kucher

For as long as Tom can remember, he has understood the reality around him through the tinted glasses of works of fiction, be it books, films, TV shows, or anime. An English graduate, he wrote articles on a wide array of topics for several years, from entertainment and pop culture to history and literature. Before that, he was an educator and a roleplay game writer and developer. It is his deeply-rooted love for performing arts and visual media that led him to become a part of the DC team in 2020.