A Florida man is facing charges after police say he drove “approximately eight blocks” Saturday night with a victim on his windshield.
According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, 22-year-old Xavier Rigby is facing charges that include vehicular homicide leaving the scene, DUI manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a crash involving death.
While traveling on 49th Street South in Gulfport on an E-bike, the victim, identified as Kjersten Aileen-Hermance Strang, 38, was struck by Rigby at around 10 p.m., police said.
She reportedly died at the scene.
Rigby is accused of fleeing the scene “without calling 911 or waiting for police and fire rescue.”
“Rigby was driving a 2021 Nissan Altima south on 49th Street, approaching 10th Avenue South, at a high rate of speed,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
“Investigators say Rigby struck Strang, causing her to be ejected from her E-bike, landing on the windshield of the vehicle. Rigby continued driving for approximately eight blocks before Strang was dislodged from the vehicle.”
Police caught Rigby at 2222 49th Street South in St. Petersburg, where he “refused to cooperate with field sobriety tests,” police said
FOX 13 Tampa Bay reports that Rigby was arrested and taken to the Pinellas County Jail.
On Monday morning, a judge denied bond on two charges, with a $750,000 bond for the DUI manslaughter charge, according to News Channel 8.
“I’m finding that you’re a danger to the community and that nothing else can secure your decision-making and putting your life and everyone else’s life on the road,”Judge Elizabeth Zuroweste said.
Zuroweste also referenced Rigby’s history of DUI allegations.
“Here you are with a prior leaving the scene from 2022, then in 2024, the state was generous enough to reduce your DUI to a reckless, for purposes of bond, it’s a DUI. So, then, here we are now,” she added.
“We’ve now gone to a second DUI, but this time the extremely aggravating facts where you’ve killed somebody, left the scene and dragged their body. And I don’t need to go any further for how aggravating this set of facts are.”
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[Feature Photo: Kjersten Aileen-Hermance Strang/Facebook]
