By Steven Alford
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
NUECES COUNTY, Texas — A nearly four-month investigation into the death of a jogger struck Sept. 13 by an SUV has been concluded by police and handed over to the Nueces County District Attorney’s Office.
Johnny Joe Ramos, 28, was struck and killed about 8 a.m. in front of Tuloso-Midway High School by a 50-year-old woman driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer as he ran his morning route.
Witnesses told police the woman lost control at an intersection before jumping a curb on Haven Drive and striking Ramos, a fire hydrant and a flagpole. She had just dropped off a student, school officials said.
No arrests have been made. Assistant District Attorney Jack Pulcher said the police department’s investigation indicates the woman was under the influence of prescription pills at the time. After the wreck she was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, and a blood draw was performed for a toxicology test.
“We have to evaluate what medical experts said about the level of drugs in her system at the time,” Pulcher said.
Depending on the findings, county officials could seek criminally negligent homicide, a state jail felony, or intoxication manslaugh-ter, a second-degree felony, he said.
The District Attorney’s Office hopes to present charges to a grand jury next month, Pulcher said.
Ramos was a graduate of the Del Mar College Fire Academy and was finishing a paramedic degree at the college. He was approaching his two-year anniversary volunteering for the Annaville Fire Department. He served alongside many of the emergency responders who arrived at the scene of the wreck.
The next night, flowers and handmade signs marked the spot where Ramos was killed as more than a hundred people gathered in memorial and retraced his jogging route around the high school.
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