Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Authorities apprehended 22-year-old Meleek Alexander Stevens yesterday, charging him with fleeing the scene of an accident that resulted in significant injury, filing a false claim of vehicle theft, and operating a vehicle with a suspended license, which led to serious harm.
At approximately 6:09 p.m. on February 9, officers from the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) and emergency responders arrived at a scene on SE Williston Road where a pedestrian had sustained critical injuries while crossing against the pedestrian signal. The driver involved had left the location, but an eyewitness reported observing an older-model gray Nissan Altima striking the pedestrian, pausing briefly, and then driving away.
The victim endured multiple severe injuries, including a brain hemorrhage, fractures to the face and skull, a lacerated liver, breaks in the spine and pelvis, a fractured leg and shoulder, and trauma to the lungs.
According to the eyewitness, the victim was crossing Williston Road at the southernmost crosswalk within the 400 block, disregarding the pedestrian signal, when she was struck in the curb lane. The impact caused her to be thrown into the air before landing on the pavement. The witness reported that the gray Nissan stopped momentarily, during which a female voice was heard saying, “I think you just hit somebody,” before the vehicle proceeded northward.
Gray paint chips were collected at the scene, along with a vehicle part that came from a Nissan vehicle.
On February 11, a witness called law enforcement to report a “very damaged vehicle” with no license plate that was parked at a vacant residence near his home; he said he believed someone was trying to “hide” the vehicle. The witness lived about seven blocks from the crash.
An officer responded to the address and found a gray Nissan Altima with a damaged front end, hood, and windshield; the vehicle was registered to Stevens and had been reported stolen about 2.5 hours after the crash.
Stevens allegedly reported the Altima stolen at about 8:45 p.m. on the day of the crash and said he noticed it was missing when he came home from work. He reportedly told the officer that he had removed the license plate in January, when he learned that his license was suspended.
In a phone interview on February 16, Stevens reportedly said he had stopped paying his automobile insurance in December, and he was stopped by a law enforcement officer on January 22, which is when he found out his license had been suspended. He said he parked the Altima at his home and had not driven it since that date. He also reportedly admitted to the officer that he had not been at work when the car was stolen and instead had been “hanging” with his cousin.
GPD reported that traffic cameras showed the Altima being driven around southwest Gainesville between January 23 and February 8, and surveillance video from Stevens’s workplace also reportedly showed the vehicle parked at the business (with the license plate attached) on multiple dates during that period; the video from his workplace also reportedly shows Stevens getting out of the driver’s seat and walking into work.
A search warrant was executed on the Altima on February 17, and the paint chips found at the scene of the crash were found to be a match to the Altima.
Officers reviewed surveillance video from various sources that enabled them to construct a timeline: video from an RTS bus shows the Altima turning east from South Main Street at 6:08 p.m., and then both vehicles turn onto Williston Road, where the Altima picks up speed and hits the victim just before the bus arrives at the scene of the crash.
Surveillance video from two nearby gas stations reportedly shows the Altima hitting the pedestrian and then stopping for about 25 seconds before fleeing at a high rate of speed.
A search warrant for Stevens’s cell phone records reportedly produced evidence of his phone leaving his home at Lexington Crossing Apartments at 5:54 p.m. and moving in the direction of the crash; at 6:10 p.m., his phone was in the area of the crash. At about 7:05 p.m., his phone moved toward his home, and he arrived home at 7:11 p.m. He also reportedly called a friend four minutes after the crash and then called him again, about seven minutes later.
At about 6:36 p.m., a vehicle registered to the friend was captured by traffic cameras about 400 feet from the crash site, and Stevens’s cell phone was reportedly in the same locations as the friend’s vehicle for the next hour. Officers believe that Stevens called the friend to pick him up after the crash.
On May 13, Stevens was interviewed at GPD Headquarters, and post Miranda, he reportedly admitted to driving his vehicle at the time of the crash; he said he saw the pedestrian on the ground and fled because he was scared to go to jail. He said he parked the vehicle a short distance away, and he reportedly admitted to making a false police report that the vehicle was stolen because he was scared.
Stevens has been charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious personal injury, making a false report that his vehicle was stolen, and driving with a suspended license, resulting in serious injury. He has a juvenile conviction from 2022, and last July, he entered into a pre-trial diversion agreement after he was arrested for domestic battery; the agreement deferred prosecution of the charge for 12 months if he complied with a list of conditions that includes refraining from breaking the law.
Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $225,000.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.