Hit-and-run driver charged in death of woman never called Killeen police, instead sought help repairing damaged SUV: affidavit

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - Michael Terrance Sneed, 42, charged in the hit-and-run collision that killed Rasha Kendrick, pulled over after striking the woman with his vehicle, spoke with another driver who also struck the woman on the road, and then told that driver that “he knew someone who could fix his vehicle” before departing the scene without rendering aid, an arrest affidavit states.

Kendrick, 48, was struck by two vehicles in the 4600 block of E. Central Texas Expressway shortly before 1 a.m. on May 1.

Police officers who responded to the scene located the woman lying on the roadway. She was transported to Seton Medical Center Harker Heights Hospital in critical condition. Kendrick succumbed to her injuries, and was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m. by Justice of the Peace Gregory Johnson.

According to police, a preliminary investigation revealed the woman entered the outside lane of the roadway when the driver of an Infinity M35 sedan traveling eastbound struck her. That driver was identified in court documents as James Ashworth.

Moments later, Sneed struck Kendrick with his Dodge Journey, police said.

Ashworth told police he pulled over and drove onto the entrance to a business in the 5000 block of East Central Texas Expressway. He said a man then pulled over next to him, got out of his vehicle and approached him to speak “about hitting something in the roadway.”

That man, identified in the arrest warrant as Sneed, then told Ashworth that he “knew someone who could fix his vehicle and departed the scene,” the document states.

Police said officers and paramedics were arriving at the scene - or were already at the scene - with their lights and sirens on, “well within the view of James Ashworth and (Sneed).” Ashworth returned to the scene to the speak with police and provide his information. The other driver, identified in the document as Sneed, did not, police said.

Investigators said a surveillance camera near the scene of the collision recorded images of Sneed exiting and re-entering the Dodge Journey when Sneed pulled over to speak with Ashworth.

Soon after those images were released to the public, a man showed up at the Killeen Police Department on May 3 to tell detectives that Sneed called him and told him he was in an accident in his Dodge Journey and “that he had hit something on the highway,” the document states.

Sneed reportedly asked the man for help repairing his Dodge Journey. When the man inspected the vehicle, he noticed the front bumper, radiator, and undercarriage were damaged.

Police obtained a warrant and seized Sneed’s Dodge Journey as evidence. A detective “observed pieces of flesh and blood underneath the right side of Sneed’s vehicle, along with dry blood around the muffler’s heatshield,” police wrote in the affidavit.

Detectives spoke with Sneed, who repeatedly told them “he knew he struck an object in the roadway” and acknowledged he saw police officers and paramedics at the scene of the accident, the affidavit states.

“Sneed said whatever ‘it’ was that was struck, police were grabbing ‘it,’” the warrant states, adding Sneed told detectives he did approach police officers at the scene because he did not “want to deal with his insurance company.”

Detectives later learned Sneed’s liability insurance for the vehicle was expired.

“At no point did Michael (Sneed) make contact with officers on the scene, call emergency services, or the Killeen Police Department,” a detective wrote in the affidavit, “Sneed admitted that he did not return to the actual location of the crash.”

The case was sent to the Bell County District Attorney’s office, and Sneed was charged with accident involving injury or death.

A warrant was issued by Justice of the Peace Gregory Johnson and Sneed surrendered at the Bell County Jail on June 26, 2023.

He is no longer listed in online jail records.

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