Break In Fatal Hit-and-Run: Man Turns Himself In

A 41-year-old man suspected in a fatal hit-and-run crash with a bicyclist in Santa Cruz on Dec. 26 was arrested Thursday after investigators linked him to a pickup truck allegedly altered to disguise it since the crash, Santa Cruz police said.

Luke Logan, a resident of Live Oak in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, turned himself in to the Police Department at 10:45 a.m. Thursday following a probe by detectives into registered owners of white Ford F-150 extra cab pickups, Lt. Bernie Escalante said.

[Previous: Santa Cruz Investigators Still Seek Driver of White Truck Involved In Hit-and-Run AND Fatal Hit-and-Run Update: Help Santa Cruz PD Find This Truck.]

On Dec. 26, at 6:36 a.m., a bicyclist later identified as 63-year-old Jose Adan Lainez was riding his bike on Soquel Avenue at Hagemann Avenue in Santa Cruz when a white pickup truck struck him.

Lainez, a Santa Cruz resident, was pronounced dead at the scene, but the driver of the pickup fled in the vehicle, police said.

Detectives researched similar pickup trucks registered to people in the Santa Cruz area and eventually narrowed down the list of suspect vehicles, including Logan’s white Ford F-150 extra cab pickup.

Police later searched Logan’s truck and his residence and recovered evidence associated with the hit-and-run crash, according to Escalante.

Officers have alleged that Logan changed the appearance of the truck to conceal the damage to the vehicle from the crash, he said. Logan was booked into the county jail in Santa Cruz on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and vehicular manslaughter.

--Bay City News

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