Richmond judge certifies charges in fatal hit-and-run

Charges certified in fatal hit-and-run

Sean Beir's brother was driving the two of them along Walmsley Boulevard to buy cigarettes when Beir felt the pickup truck run over something, he testified yesterday in a Richmond courtroom.

From the passenger seat, Beir turned and saw someone lying on the side of the road around 9 or 10 p.m. on Jan. 16. He said he alerted his brother, Bryan Christopher Shull, 36, of Lake Hills Road in Chesterfield County.

"He said, 'There's no way I can stop,'" Beir testified. "He said he'd been drinking and he just couldn't stop."

A judge yesterday certified charges of involuntary manslaughter and hit-and-run against Shull to a grand jury set to meet April 6. The charges stem from the death of Tiara Rosa, 15, of New York.

Authorities say she was hit by a pickup while walking along Walmsley on Jan. 16. She died the next day.

Shull was arrested Jan. 28. He also was charged with giving false information to police.

Beir testified yesterday in Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court that Shull had two mixed drinks before they left his home in Chesterfield County. Beir said he also was drinking and that the two smoked marijuana.

He said the pickup never left the road during the collision.

Rosa's mother, Michelle Medford, gave tearful testimony during the hearing.

She said she was walking with her daughter when the pickup struck her. "When the truck hit her and she went up in the sky . . . the whole sky lit up," said Medford, who remembers feeling weak in the knees. "I know that sounds weird, but that's exactly what happened."

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .