KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Franklin man suspected in a deadly hit and run in Knoxville has turned himself in to police.
Curtis Harper, age 22, surrendered to authorities Wednesday afternoon on three counts of vehicular homicide, DUI, tampering with evidence, and reckless endangerment. He was being held on $300,000 bond.
Investigators said Harper hit two people with his SUV in Knoxville last week and left the scene.
Chasity Thornell and Nelson Soto were helping a woman who ran out of gas, when they were run over by Harper. Both Thornell and Soto died. Thornell's unborn child was also killed. She was 7 months pregnant.
Thornell could not get the woman's car running outside Nelson Soto's Knoxville home. Soto came out with a gas can to help before the SUV hit them both and kept going.
Officers from the Knoxville Police Department discovered Harper's damaged vehicle at a friend's house with blood and hair on it.
Harper was arrested in 2011 for possessing drug paraphernalia following a traffic stop in Knox County, but charges were later dismissed.
He was also convicted in 2008 of theft of property under $500 in Franklin, but his sentence was suspended after serving 48 hours at the Williamson County Jail, according the Knoxville CBS affiliate WVLT.
Curtis Harper (Image courtesy WVLT)
Chasity Thornell and her unborn child were killed. Thornell was 7 months pregnant.
Nelson Soto was also killed in the hit-and-run crash.
