MIDDLEBURG, Fla. – The man accused of hitting a 13-year-old boy on his bicycle and driving off to leave him to die is facing charges because of the actions of another motorist paying attention and getting involved.
Channel 4 learned more Friday about what led police to 22-year-old Anthony Margadonna two days after he is accused of hitting Brien Alvezios with his Jeep Grand Cherokee on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers say Margadonna kept driving on Branan Field Road until he reached the Walmart in Middleburg. Surveillance video from the store shows Margadonna getting out of his SUV and checking out the front-end damage before getting back in the vehicle and driving off.
Two days later, a motorist that had seen news reports that the FHP was looking for a Grand Cherokee with front-end damage, a friend of the Alvezios family spotted a Jeep with a busted headline driving next to him on U.S. 17 near Middleburg High School. The FHP said when Margadonna noticed the man in the next vehicle eyeing the damaged Jeep and picking up a cell phone, Margadonna did a U-turn and sped off in the opposite direction.
The motorist turned around, too, determined to catch up with the SUV.
"He kept trying to act like he was going to turn in here and turn in there, but then when I'd turn he'd jump back on Blanding and accelerate," said the motorist, who doesn't want his name used.
After following the Jeep for about five miles while on the phone with 911, Margadonna was pulled over by a Clay County deputy. Margadonna was arrested on minor charges that night, but his SUV impounded and Florida Department of Law Enforcement technicians processed it for evidence. On Thursday, the results came back and Margodonna was arrested, charged with leaving the scene of a crash involvingadeath.
The Alvezios are relieved the person responsible of their child's death is behind bars, and grateful to theirfriend, who says hehappened to be at the right place at the right time.
"If I lost my son, I would want somebody to do the same thing for me," the motorist told Channel 4.