Suspect pleads not guilty in fatal hit and run case | Update

Published 9:40 pm Friday, March 25, 2011

UPDATE | Fikret Manashirov pled not guilty Tuesday to charges of felony hit-and-run in the death of a 77-year-old woman last month. He was released on $10,000 bail.

Original story is below

King County prosecutors have filed charges against a Bellevue man in the hit-and-run death of a 77-year-old woman near the Crossroads mall Friday.

Fikret Manashirov, 49, was arrested by Bellevue police the day after the incident, with the help of a few vigilant Bellevue residents.

The incident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. when the victim Marina Kristalinsala was attempting to cross 161st Avenue Northeast at Northeast Eighth Street. Witnesses said the driver, Manashirov was heading west on Northeast Eighth when he allegedly hit the woman. She was flung several feet, and died on the scene due to trauma to the head and body, according to court documents written Bellevue Police Lt. Marcia Harnden. He stopped briefly after the incident. He then drove away. Two witnesses attempted to follow the driver but he eventually got away.

The morning after the woman was killed, a resident who followed media reports of the incident got in touch with police. He said a home he walks by regularly has two Lincoln Town Cars in the driveway, but this morning a silver one, similar to the one police were looking for, was missing.

Police went to the home at the 1300 block of 165th Avenue Northeast and found a gold Town Car with damage consistent with what police suspected would occur in the hit-and-run incident. Manashirov quickly came out of the home and confessed to the crime, saying he was “the one who hit the person,” according to court documents. He told police he was afraid after the incident and drove off after hitting the woman.

Manashirov was arrested and booked into King County Jail, pending charges.

Police said the assistance of citizens and the media helped speed up the search for the driver.

“Without their information it would have be much more difficult to solve this crime,” Bellevue police spokeswoman Officer Carla Iafrate wrote.