Trial Underway In Bowie County Pedestrian Hit And Run
NEW BOSTON, Texas–A jury of seven women and five men began hearing
testimony Tuesday in the case of a Texarkana man accused of intentionally
running over another man in a church parking lot last year.
Patrick Jerome Cridell Jr., 33, allegedly “swerved” a silver 2011 Kia Forte
into the parking lot of Grace Fellowship Church at 2401 Hazel St. in
Texarkana, Texas, shortly after 6 p.m. March 30, 2025, and accelerated
before striking the pedestrian “intentionally,” according to a probable
cause affidavit filed in Bowie County on Friday.
The wounded man managed to drag himself onto the campus of nearby Highland
Park Elementary School where he was discovered the following day at about 6
a.m. Investigators with the Texarkana Texas Police Dept. concluded that the
Kia’s driver ran over the man on purpose after reviewing video surveillance
from Texarkana Independent School District which captured the incident, the
affidavit said.
The victim of the crash reportedly suffered a brain bleed and traumatic
head injury.
Shortly after the severely injured man was found and taken for emergency
medical care, investigators located a heavily damaged silver Kia parked at
a house in the 2800 block of Walnut St., just blocks from the church where
the collision occurred.
Cridell had been driving the Kia on March 30 when it was stopped at about
4:30 p.m. by police in Texarkana, Ark., and at that time, the car had no
damage, the affidavit said. When the Kia was found the next day on Walnut
St. it had a broken windshield, dents in the hood and roof, and “a fresh
rubber marking from a shoe across the hood consistent with the video,” the
affidavit said.
Cridell is currently being held in the Bowie County jail with bail set at
$200,000. If found guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon,
Cridell faces two to 20 years in prison.
Trial began Tuesday following jury selection before 102nd District Judge
Jeff Addison.
Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter is representing the state. Cridell
is represented by Vadol Miller.