AFTER SPENDING SIX YEARS IN PRISON FOR DUI, PHOENIX MAN RUNS OVER HIS 21-MONTH-OLD SON

Phoenix dad faces negligent homicide charge after running over tot with truck

by Lurissa Carbajal and Bree Burkitt

The Republic
April 20, 2018

A Phoenix father was arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide after police say he ran over his 21-month-old son with a truck Thursday evening.

Richard Hamilton, 49, had been moving a truck at 5:50 p.m. on his property near 25th and Augusta avenues and told officers he didn't know the boy had gotten close to the vehicle.

Hamilton stopped the truck when he felt a bump under the tire, according to a police statement.

A neighbor told police they had seen Hamilton playing with the child in the front yard before the crash, according to the probable cause statement submitted to a court by Phoenix police.

Little Samuel Hamilton was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Hamilton told police he had been driving the truck, but he claimed he hadn't had anything to drink other than a half pint of vodka the night before, the court document said.

He refused a field sobriety test, but police said he had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol, the court statement said.

A broken beer bottle was found feet away from the back of the truck and liquid was splashed onto the driver side rear tire, the report said. Glass fragments were also found near the bottle and in a nearby trash can, which led investigators to believe someone had tried to clean up the broken bottle, according to the record.

Police said Richard Hamilton was "processed for DUI" and booked into a Maricopa County jail.

A woman who spoke at Hamilton's initial appearance Friday on the boy's behalf said the incident "was a total accident.'' She asked for him to be released from jail so the family can properly mourn Samuel's death.

The Arizona Department of Corrections website shows Hamilton served six years in prison for an aggravated DUI and vehicular homicide. He was released in 2013.

His bond was set at $50,000 at Friday's court appearance, but he was placed on a no-bail hold because of a probation violation for a second aggravated DUI conviction.