BEAUMONT, Texas — A newspaper carrier was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison in the hit and run death of a 29-year-old man while on on her paper route just over two years ago.
Orireanna Grace Coleman, 30, of Orange, pleaded guilty in June 2022 to "accident involving injury/death," which is a second degree felony, according to court documents.
She was sentenced by Judge John Stevens in Jefferson County's Criminal District Court.
Coleman struck Nicholas Erier Cole, 29, of Orange, with her SUV early on the morning of August 7, 2020, while finishing her Beaumont Enterprise route delivering newspapers in the north end of Beaumont according to testimony.
She kept going after striking Cole and later called police and reported that she had seen a truck strike a person and then drive away near Helbig and East Lucas Streets according to testimony.
When Police and EMS arrived they could not find anyone and Cole's body was not discovered until more than 24 hours later on August 8, 2020.
Later investigators contacted Coleman, who at the time they believed to be a witness, to ask what she had seen according to a probable cause affidavit.
She told investigators that she had seen the headlights swerve from the hit and run vehicle and said she wasn't sure if the vehicle hit the person the affidavit said.
Coleman also spelled her first name wrong for police and gave them an incorrect birthdate and address.
Coleman admitted during testimony Thursday that she lied to police.
Police found broken vehicle parts at the scene and matched the part numbers to a 2015-2017 Chevrolet Traverse according to the affidavit.
Investigators then were able to find surveillance video of the area where Cole was struck and found only one vehicle.
The license plate of that vehicle returned to a 2015 Chevrolet Traverse registered to Coleman according to the affidavit.
During testimony Thursday Coleman said that she had panicked and left the scene because she was "scared to death" that she would go to jail for an "accident."
"I'm very sorry because I'm not that type of person. I'm not malicious and I would never do that on purpose," Coleman testified in tears when asked if she had anything to say to Cole's family.
Stevens did not seem swayed by Coleman's remorsefulness and admonished her asking if she was religious before quoting Proverbs to her.
"Guilty men flee when no man pursueth but the righteous stand bold as a lion," Stevens said to Coleman.
"You fled. You lied and what's worse is the pre-sentence report states that had you stayed at the scene and showed officers and EMS where the victim was lying he may have survived."
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