MURRIETA: Hit and run driver arrested after reporting car stolen

MURRIETA — An Murrieta man who allegedly ran several stop signs and nearly hit a jogger while driving on an embankment was later arrested after plowing into a tree and fleeing the scene of the accident, last Tuesday morning, July 24. According to officials, the driver later attempted to report that his wrecked car had been stolen.

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After an investigation officers arrested 32-year-old, Christopher Nelson Mills. He was booked into jail on suspicion of filing a false police report and hit and run resulting in property damage.

City of Murrieta PD officers responded to the area of Calle Del Oso Oro and Clear Creek, after receiving reports of a reckless driver in a white Lexus. 911 callers reports that the driver was running stop signs, driving on embankments, and nearly hit a jogger.

While officers were still responding to the area, another 911 caller advised that the car crashed into a tree and the driver had fled on foot. Witnesses later provided detailed descriptions of the driver, as well as the clothing he was wearing, and officers began searching for the man.

At around noon Mills, the registered owner of the car, called 911 to report that his vehicle had been stolen.

When officers went to Mills’ Fern Place residence about two miles from where he had wrapped his car around a tree, they observed that he matched the description of the driver who allegedly fled from the car after the accident.

Officers also noticed that Mills was wearing the same clothing as described by witnesses to the crash earlier in the morning. “In fact, he had brush and stickers in his socks and a dandelion sticking out of his pocket,” officials later explained.

Despite his objections and claims of innocence, witnesses later positively identified Mills as the driver of the vehicle who had fled from the crash.

Jail records indicate Mills was cited and released within hours of his arrest and is scheduled to be arraigned at Murrieta’s Southwest Justice Center, Sept. 14.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 47, recently moved to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for several other news organizations, including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook, as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and The Mountain Echo in Shasta County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.