Woman charged in pedestrian hit-and-run

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A witness to a pedestrian hit-and-run was able to provide Austin Police Department with a description of the vehicle, driver and address where the suspect drove to after the Monday morning incident.

APD received a call about 8 a.m. that a female pedestrian in a crosswalk at East St. Johns Avenue and Cameron Road was hit by a green Dodge Ram. The witness said the truck left the scene.

The witness followed the Dodge Ram to a home in the 1600 block of Wheless Lane. Police arrived and found the described vehicle parked in front of the home with the driver's door still open.

The suspect, identified as Ella Miller, 45, initially had help in trying to hide from police in the home, according to the affidavit.

At first, the woman who answered the door of the home where the truck was parked told police she didn't know whose truck it was. She went inside the house to ask whose it was, came back out, told police there was no one in the home with her, though the officer clearly heard her talking to someone. Confronted with that evidence, the woman changed her story, and another woman came to the door. However, neither woman matched the description of the truck's driver as provided by the witness.

By the time the officer and his cadet partner were finished with the questioning and looked in the backyard of the house, six different women had come to the door or were seen inside the home before Miller was identified.

The first five women all denied knowing anything before the officer saw the sixth woman walking down the hallway of the home, this one fitting the description provided by the man who witnessed the hit-and-run. She initially gave the officer a false name, according to the affidavit.

Police arrested and charged Miller with failure to stop and render aid, a third-degree felony. She is being held in Travis County Jail on $8,000 bond.

The woman who was hit by the truck suffered an injured ankle and elbow in the incident.