SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A 19-year-old Springfield man has been arrested after police say he struck a pedestrian with his SUV while speeding, lied to investigators about his involvement, and blamed a fabricated vehicle.

Jermiah L. Simmons, also known as "Pluto," faces charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or death, as well as obstructing justice, according to a Springfield Police Department report.

The incident occurred early Sunday morning, Aug. 9, 2026, in the 800 block of East Indiana Avenue. Officers responding to a hit-and-run found a female pedestrian who had suffered severe injuries, including multiple broken bones and a skull fracture. She was transported to a local hospital where she was admitted to the intensive care unit and intubated.

At the scene, Simmons initially told officers that a speeding, silver Infiniti sedan with tinted windows and no headlights had struck the woman before fleeing the area. Other bystanders initially backed his claim.

However, a follow-up investigation revealed a different sequence of events. Witnesses later told police that Simmons was actually behind the wheel of a blue Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and was accelerating down the street to "show off" his vehicle.

At the same time, a physical fight broke out on the sidewalk, and an unidentified person pushed the victim into the roadway. She was immediately struck by the passenger-side bumper of Simmons' Jeep.

While witnesses said Simmons stopped to check on the victim and helped move her to a nearby lawn before emergency responders arrived, he did not inform police that he was the driver. He instead walked away from the scene and fabricated the story about the silver Infiniti.

After police confronted him with the new witness accounts, Simmons confessed to driving the Jeep and confirmed the vehicle's front-end damage was from the crash. He was arrested and booked into the Sangamon County Jail.

Simmons appeared in court on Wednesday and was denied per-trial release. He is due back in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing. 

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