A Nashville tractor-trailer driver has been charged with criminally negligent homicide for running over a pedestrian on Fesslers Lane at Murfreesboro Pike on the evening of December 29.
Thomas J. Pettus, 27, of Creighton Avenue, is also charged with leaving the scene of a fatal collision and failure to render aid.
Shortly before 9:30 p.m. on December 29, officers were called to the scene of a man down on Fesslers Lane 100 feet south of the Murfreesboro Pike intersection. Lonnie L. Johnson, 47, of 411 Murfreesboro Pike, had apparently been struck by a vehicle. He was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and died shortly after arriving.
During the course of Hit & Run Officer Kevin Lovell’s investigation, information was received from an anonymous person that a white tractor-trailer had turned short onto Fesslers Lane very close to a pedestrian at about the time Johnson was hit. Surveillance video from an area business showed the truck traveling on Fesslers Lane just prior to the first 911 call.
Officer Lovell this week learned that a woman, who turned out to be Pettus’ former housemate, had information about the crash. She told police that Pettus admitted to her that he struck a man and actually got out of the truck and saw the victim lying in the roadway. Pettus was interviewed Thursday evening, said he could not remember if he had struck anyone, and then asked for a lawyer.
Pettus is being held in the Metro Jail in lieu of $40,000 bond.
Thomas J. Pettus
Lonnie L. Johnson
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