A Summerfield man has been found guilty in the hit-and-run death of a female pedestrian in 2024 near a popular restaurant.
A jury delivered a guilty verdict this week in the case of 27-year-old Christian Patrick Parker in Marion County Court. He was convicted of vehicular manslaughter. The court ordered that Parker remain in custody at Marion County Jail without bond until further notice.
Parker ran a red light and fatally struck 34-year-old Ariel Marie Hartford as she crossed U.S. Hwy. 441 using a crosswalk, according to an arrest report from the Belleview Police Department. Witnesses immediately checked on Hartford as they watched Parker’s black Lincoln Town Car speed away. An officer ran the vehicle’s license plate and found the driver’s license photo matched Parker’s description.
Law enforcement collected debris from the scene, including a piece of the Lincoln’s grill. They also went to the Pasta Faire restaurant on U.S. Hwy. 441 to obtain surveillance footage of the fatal collision.
Police found a camper behind a mobile home at 6140 SE 144th Pl., Summerfield, where Parker and a woman were inside. They initially tried to ignore law enforcement until the woman claimed that Parker told her someone had stolen his car. He was then arrested on charges of leaving scene of crash involving death and vehicular homicide.