Scorned Georgia woman who ran over ex-boyfriend to spend 12 years in jail

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

GEORGIA – A woman who ran over her ex-boyfriend with her SUV after he dumped her will now spend the next 12 years behind bars.

Just hours after her former lover ended their relationship, Vanessa Marie Garrett-Rogers, 28, of Hiram, Georgia, drove into her victim, dragged him under her vehicle, and backed over him before fleeing the scene in July 2010.

“While [the victim] is walking up the street, witnesses sitting on the porch of a mobile home see lights from a vehicle come on,” Assistant District Attorney Tom Kegley told the court.

“[The victim] is 20-30 yards away when the vehicle starts coming towards him. He tries to step out of the way, but the vehicle ultimately hits him,” he added. “The witnesses all state that the victim is drug under the vehicle and onto the roadway, where the defendant backed over him before driving away.”

He was left in a roadway in the Douglasville area before being transported to Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. The victim, whose name was not released, received treatment for a dislocated pelvis and fractured femur, along with injuries to his skull and hands.

Garrett-Rogers, who is a mother, pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an accident. Judge Robert J. James sentenced her to a 30-year sentence, with 12 years in jail and 18 on probation. She will also have to pay her victim nearly $58,000 in restitution.

Police discovered the Toyota 4Runner belonging to Garrett-Rogers the next day in her father’s garage, the district attorney’s office said. The damage to the front end of the vehicle was consistent with evidence of striking a person.

Prosecutor Kegley told WSB TV this is not the first time Garrett-Rogers tried to run over a boyfriend who called it quits. “What we had told the judge about the similar transaction from approximately seven months before did look like that this is a situation where her anger gets the best of her.”

Her defense attorney admitted she had run over the victim but said she was trying to get away from a drug deal. Police did not find any drugs at the scene.

Follow Kunbi Tinuoye on Twitter at @Kunbiti