Hit-and-run suspect faces vehicular assault charge
County road worker seriously injured in Thursday morning collision.
EPHRATA — A California man faces felony charges following a hit-and-run collision that seriously injured a Grant County road crew worker early Thursday morning south of Moses Lake.
The suspect, 36-year-old Trino Mendez, who also has a local address in Lind, drove away from the scene but was later located by sheriff’s deputies and booked into the Grant County Jail.
Mendez made a preliminary appearance Friday in Grant County Superior Court where he pled not guilty to charges of vehicular assault, hit-and-run (injury accident), and making false statements to a public servant.
Judge Jennifer Richardson set Mendez’s bail at $25,000 pending trial scheduled for Sept. 2. A public defender was appointed to represent him.
According to a sheriff’s report, the incident was reported at 5:13 a.m. Thursday on the North Frontage Road of Interstate 90 about one mile east of Dodson Road. Three county public works employees were at the scene placing paving tabs on the centerline of the roadway with a work pickup parked in the westbound lane with its emergency lights flashing.
Deputies were told an older teal-and-black colored Jeep Cherokee approached the location and struck one of the workers, with the Jeep veering into the south ditch. A male driver got out of the vehicle, briefly looked at the injured man, then drove away westbound on the frontage road.
The injured worker, 49-year-old Jeffrey Isaiah Schoenwald of Moses Lake, sustained multiple injuries and was transported to Samaritan Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, according to the report.
The sheriff’s office posted an online alert about the vehicle and obtained surveillance video from a nearby business. Shortly before 10 a.m., authorities received an anonymous call saying the vehicle was observed about seven miles away at a farm in the 800 block of Road H.5-SW.
Responding deputies found a parked Jeep matching the description allegedly showing front-end damage, then located Mendez hiding in a potato shed. He initially admitted driving the Jeep that morning, but afterward declined to talk to deputies and instead asked to call an attorney, the report said. The Jeep was impounded as evidence.
Deputies alleged that Mendez first provided them with a false name, but his identity was later confirmed following a records check.
