Authorities have arrested a man and woman in North Carolina and charged them in a road-rage crash that took the life of a Richmond man last month.
Richmond police charged Christopher Sessoms, 40, and Charity Dees, 31, with one count each of felony hit and run in the Sept. 22 crash on Interstate 195 in Richmond. The wreck injured Christopher Lee Fisher, 24, and he died Oct. 2 at VCU Medical Center.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service Violent Fugitive Task Force based in Raleigh, N.C., arrested the suspects Tuesday afternoon outside their home in Wake County, N.C.
Authorities took the suspects into custody after Dees pulled up in the red pickup that authorities say was involved in the crash in Richmond, said Bryan Konig, a deputy U.S. marshal.
Authorities also found 82 Oxycontin pills in Dees' bra, and she was charged with trafficking in opiates, Konig said.
Richmond Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland said the two suspects were being held in North Carolina, pending extradition to Richmond.
Thorne-Begland praised Richmond police and federal marshals for their work on the case and said their efforts will ensure the suspects will be held to justice. He added that he and the police are pursuing the possibility of placing additional charges.
The wreck that fatally injured Fisher occurred in the southbound lanes of Interstate 195 at the Douglasdale Road interchange. The wreck was reported at 8:11 a.m.
Richmond police have said the red pickup sped past the Honda Accord, cut in front of it and slammed on its brakes.
The Honda, while trying to avoid a collision, swerved off the road, struck a concrete guardrail and became airborne before the driver's side smashed into a concrete bridge abutment underneath Douglasdale Road, police said.
Thorne-Begland said Sessoms was driving the red pickup, a Ford Ranger, at the time of the incident. "Witnesses who observed this place Mr. Sessoms engaging in extremely aggressive behavior toward the driver of the Honda," he said.
Police have said the driver of the pickup ran a toll farther south on the Powhite Parkway, allowing authorities to determine that the truck had North Carolina license plates YNM-8924.
Thorne-Begland said the pickup was registered to a relative of Sessoms' and that he and Dees had traveled to Tennessee and Georgia before they were arrested in North Carolina.
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