Charles MaginThe arrest of a suspect last week in the January hit-and-run death of a Rossville man in a wheelchair came about through cooperation by numerous law enforcement agencies, a Georgia State Patrol spokesman said.
Charles Magin was arrested Friday in the death of Michael Lewis Burns. The spokesman, Cpl. A.B. Gideon, said the arrest came out of an investigation by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Drug Task Force that led the GSP to the car.
The hit-and-run happened about 1:30 p.m. Jan. 24 as Burns, 57, was traveling in an electric wheelchair on the shoulder of Indian Avenue in Rossville. According to witnesses, a white or silver car that looked like an Acura hit Burns' wheelchair, stopped momentarily and then continued south on Indian Avenue, Gideon said.
For weeks following the incident, Sgt. Tommy Sturdivan, head of the GSP's Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team, made public appeals for anyone with information about the case to come forward.
Sturdivan and his team developed a composite image of the damage the car would have sustained and had area agencies including the Chattanooga Police Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Rossville Police Department, the Walker County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on the lookout for cars matching that description.
"Multiple agencies contributed," Gideon said. "It took everybody getting leads and just following up on them."
He said once the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force developed the link that led them to the car, investigators performed a forensic examination of the damage and found physical evidence consistent with the accident.
Gideon said the woman who owned the car was an acquaintance of Magin's, and she said Magin told her a different story about how the car was damaged. Interviews with her and other acquaintances led authorities to a house in Trenton, Ga., where Magin was staying.
Magin was charged with first-degree homicide and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death. Gideon said other charges are pending as the investigation unfolds.
Magin was taken to the Walker County Jail. He appeared before a Walker County magistrate on Saturday but no bond was set, according to Cpl. Justin Smith with the Walker County Sheriff's Office.
Contact staff writer Will Healey at whealey@timesfreepress.comor 423-757-6731.
News report from the incident: