CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A jury found Richard Humbert, 39, guilty of a felony hit-and-run charge on Tuesday. He's the man accused, and now convicted, of hitting 8-year-old Forrest Hooper on South Battlefield Boulevard last October and leaving the scene.
"I will sleep well tonight," Hooper's grandmother, Cindy Lutz, said Tuesday evening. "Justice was served today."
The jury deliberated for approximately six hours, breaking once in the afternoon to ask counsel and the judge a question, and again for lunch.
Humbert struck Hooper on the afternoon of October 3, 2023. Surveillance video shows Humbert then drove to a nearby Wawa, where he got out of the car to check the damage.. When investigators eventually tracked him down and interviewed him, Humbert took responsibility for the accident but claimed he thought he hit a deer. He maintained that claim throughout the investigation.
This was Humbert's second trial. The first, in September, ended in a mistrial after concerns jurors were researching the case and talking about it outside of the courtroom. "You don't know how a jury's going to react," Lutz said of having to go through the proceedings a second time. "There's so many unknowns. It was very stressful, but I'm happy with the verdict."
The defense's main argument was that Humbert did not know he hit Hooper at the time of the crash. They pointed to evidence presented of the defendant searching the web for "Allstate" and terms related to animal damage on a vehicle.
Meanwhile, the prosecution argued Humbert hoped he wouldn't get caught, citing a lack of insurance claims filed and searches for local news and nearby crashes following the accident.
After the court clerk read the verdict, Humbert's attorneys asked for a jury poll, where each individual juror is asked if they think the defendant is guilty. The jurors remained unanimous. Following that, Humbert's counsel said it intends to file a motion to vacate the verdict.
Felony hit and run causing serious injury or death carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Lutz said Tuesday, "If I had it my way, he would have it no year less than I had my Forrest, so he would do at least eight or nine, because we were a week away from his ninth birthday."
