A driver suspected of killing an 84-year-old World War II veteran in an early morning hit-and-run crash on Veterans Day pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter and other related charges today in San Francisco Superior Court.
Arthur Clark Jr., 20, of San Francisco, is charged with felony vehicular manslaughter, felony hit-and-run, and driving on a suspended license in connection with the Nov. 11 crash that killed Isaac Hudson.
Hudson, a San Francisco resident, was killed when a 1990 Lexus struck his Ford Escort shortly after midnight at the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and Congdon Street in the city’s Outer Mission neighborhood.
Prosecutors estimate the Lexus was traveling at about 50 mph at the time.
According to police, witnesses saw three men run from the Lexus after the crash.
Investigators believe Clark was the driver based on witness accounts, evidence in Clark’s name found inside the abandoned Lexus, and a DNA match connecting him with a sample found on the car’s deployed airbag, according to the district attorney’s office.
The car is registered to Clark’s girlfriend, prosecutors said.
Clark was already in custody on an unrelated charge of marijuana possession for sale when the DNA hit came back on Dec. 3, Buckelew said. He had been arrested on the drug charge Nov. 20.
Clark is also on felony probation for weapons violations and has a no-bail hold for a probation violation, according to the district attorney’s office.
Clark is due back in court Jan. 21 to set a preliminary hearing date in the manslaughter case, for which bail has been set at $1 million.
