Hit and run death accident leads to jail sentence

A 20-year-old Antelope motorist was sentenced today to 300 days in jail and placed on probation for five years for a hit-and-run case in which a 47-year-old woman was killed on Interstate 80 in Roseville.

Jeremy Sam Sarguis, who pleaded guilty in May to two counts of conspiracy and one count of leaving the scene of an accident in which a death occurred, was given the sentence by Placer County Superior Court Judge Robert P. McElhany, who accepted the Probation Department’s recommendation to grant probation.

The Placer County District Attorney’s Office requested a sentence of three years in state prison for Sarguis, who struck and killed Vickie Janell Scott of Grass Valley as she walked on I-80 near Atlantic Street at 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 4.

In a statement of facts filed with the court, prosecutor Jeff Wilson said Sarguis was not an appropriate candidate for probation. Wilson wrote that Sarguis fled after striking the woman, despite pleas from one of his passengers to turn around and go back.

Instead, Sarguis, who was on probation for driving under the influence and who had consumed alcohol at a party prior to the accident, took back roads to drop off the passenger and then removed hairs belonging to the victim from the cracked windshield and hosed down the car to remove other evidence.

Later that day, the defendant and the passengers were convinced by the mother of one of the passengers to turn themselves in, Wilson wrote. However, the defendant and the others fabricated a story as to what occurred in the accident, he wrote.

It was only when the men were separated from each other and questioned by authorities that the truth came out, Wilson wrote.

The prosecutor said the defendant’s actions demonstrated ‘criminal sophistication in the execution of the crime, the destruction of evidence and the obstruction of justice.’

Wilson wrote that the Probation Department’s recommendation of probation ‘rewards the defendant for his choice to leave the scene.’

‘In cases where the defendant attempts to flee the scene to avoid a manslaughter conviction, the punishment must be prison,’ he wrote.

In addition to the probation and jail sentence, McElhany ordered Sarguis to pay $8,804 in restitution and to submit to search and seizure from law enforcement. He is to abstain from using or possessing intoxicants and he cannot frequent places where alcohol is the chief item of sale.