OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — One of the two suspects of a hit-and-run crash that killed an Ottawa County father has bonded out – and is offering an apology to the man’s family.
Maly Phongsavanh, 22, was accompanied by her parents as she left Ottawa County Jail around 5:15 Monday evening.
She and Jeremie Collins, 26, are charged with leaving the scene of a deadly crash after police say they hit and killed Joshua Owens, 24, of Holland as he crossed Ottawa Beach Road around 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Investigators say the two were speeding while driving westbound around a curve.
“I just want to say I’m really sorry to (Owens’) family,” Phongsavanh told FOX 17 outside the jail. “I would love to say I’m sorry in person if I could. It was an accident and I wish I could have seen him around that curve.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again as her eyes welled up with tears.
Friends of Owens tell FOX 17 he was crossing the road from the Itty Bitty Bar to an ATM to get cab money. He and others had been out celebrating his wife’s birthday.
Court records from Monday morning showed both Collins and Phongsavanh had been arrested on felony murder warrants.
Both have alcohol offenses on their records. Phongsavanh has an underage possession charge from 2009. Collins has four separate convictions, including a 2009 drunk driving charge and a 2007 open container charge.
A Facebook status update from Collins’s page just hours before the incident read in part, “Forever drunk.”
There hasn’t been an indication that alcohol-related charges will be brought into the case.
Michigan law can punish leaving the scene of a deadly crash with up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Collins is still being held on $5,000 bond.
Both suspects will be back in court for a preliminary exam on April 3 at 9:00 a.m.
