SAN DIEGO — Charges have been filed in an Illinois hit-and-run accident that killed a Chula Vista bicyclist who was on a cross-country ride to protest government bailouts.
Leon K. Marcum, 27, of Centralia, Ill., was charged with aggravated leaving the scene of an accident involving death in the Sunday crash that killed Jim Gafney, said Clinton County State's Attorney John Hudspeth.
Prosecutors are reviewing all details of the case, including Marcum's blood-alcohol level, and may also file felony driving under the influence charges, Hudspeth said.
Police originally cited Marcum for misdemeanor DUI and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, but those charges were withdrawn pending further review.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure we prosecute this case appropriately given the end result – that a man lost his life,” Hudspeth said.
Marcum was being held in jail on $100,000 bail, Hudspeth said.
Gafney, 65, a former Navy man and retired computer engineer who had worked at Camp Pendleton, was killed about 12:40 a.m. as he was riding his bike east on U.S. Route 50, about 60 miles east of St. Louis, Illinois State Police said.
He had left his home April 27 on what he had dubbed his “Mad As Hell Bike Ride Across U.S.” He was gathering signatures protesting what he called “taxation without representation” by politicians he referred to as “Obama prostitutes.”
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