Witness says accused got out of driver’s seat at hit and run trial

Jonathon Fraser was on his way home in July of 2019 when he saw something that startled him.

 “I see something fly in the air like 25 feet...after that I see a car was sparking,” he said.

Fraser told the court he thought a deer was struck but then realized, “I see that it’s a cyclist.”

Fraser then followed a grey Nissan which left the scene after the collision, and when it stopped he said he saw the accused get out of the driver’s seat.

“I looked right at his face...he jumped out of the driver side, the driver door,” he said.

Months after the crash, the London Police Service arrested and charged Jesse Bleck, 29. He has pleaded not guilty to failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing bodily harm and operating a motor vehicle while prohibited.

In his opening address, Crown Attorney Artem Orlov told the jury, “The main issue of this trial will be the identity of the driver” and “Our job is to prove it was Mr. Bleck and no one else.”

Tino Casavecchia posted this photo on Facebook of his nephew Tristan Roby who was identified by police as the victim of a hit and run on Sunday, July 21. 2019.

The cyclist, Tristan Roby, who was 17 at the time of the crash, received serious life altering brain injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair.

Roby joined his mother and a personal support worker for the first day of the trial but later left due to his fragile condition.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Abby Roby, Tristan’s mother. “He knows what’s going on, he understands, he’s in there but he’s trapped.”

The trial resumes on Wednesday and is slated to last three weeks.