Friend: Woman didn't know she hit man with truck

A friend of the Gardnerville woman accused of leaving an injured man lying by the roadside after hitting him with her truck defended her on Friday.

Jake Strazi, who identified himself as Melissa Hernandez's boyfriend, said she left messages for him three times on July 22, the night of the accident.

"She called me three times at midnight," he said. "She sounded shaken up that night when she left that message. She just got her truck and it was pretty much brand new. She told me she hit a deer that night and it knocked her mirror off."

Strazi said he's known Hernandez, 27, for 14 years, and that they'd been dating for five months. He said they both went to Douglas High School.

"I'm not saying she didn't do this," he said. "But I know it is an accident. She wouldn't have hit a person and left him there. She's not that kind of person."

Strazi said they talked about the incident the next day where they worked at North Sails.

"I hate that she's being portrayed like this, because she is not like that," he said. "She's a wonderful person. I know in my heart that she did not know she hit someone and left them to die. She told me, 'I think I hit a deer. It didn't even jolt my steering wheel.'"

Strazi said he was with her when she went to the Nevada Highway Patrol office in Reno to give her statement.

"She told them 'I didn't think it was a big deal because I hit a deer,'" he said. "I don't like the way it's been chopped up. I just want the real story down."

Hernandez was arrested Tuesday on charges of failure to stop at the scene or render aid. She was booked into Douglas County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail.

She is accused of hitting 32-year-old Cayle Hanson at 11 p.m. July 22 near Lutheran Bridge in Gardnerville and then leaving the scene.

Hanson was severely injured, with broken ribs, cuts and bruises. He lay by the roadside for 30 minutes before Gardnerville Ranchos teenagers Jose and Miguel Pena called for help after spotting him while on their way home.

After the story appeared on The Record-Courier's Web site, an anonymous tip led the Nevada Highway Patrol to Hernandez.

She is scheduled to appear in East Fork Justice Court on Oct. 21. Hernandez was released from jail on her own recognizance Friday morning on condition she not drive or use drugs or alcohol.