Driver involved in hit-and-run says he fell asleep before he allegedly struck 13-year-old girl

The teen driver responsible for the death of a 13-year-old girl said fell asleep at the wheel before he struck her and woke up to the girl’s body on the hood, according to the El Paso Police Department.

On Sept. 7, 17-year-old Samuel Thomas Garcia struck 13-year-old Gissell Martinez as she was walking along the 5500 block of Montoya around 4 p.m. that afternoon with her 9-year-old brother and fled the scene without stopping render aid, police said.

Martinez was taken to a local hospital where she died.

According to the investigators, Garcia told someone he knew that on the day of the accident he was falling asleep while driving along Montoya.

He eventually fell asleep as he was driving his 2002 Ford F-150 and woke up to Martinez’s body on the hood of the truck, Garcias allegedly said.

The affidavit states he allegedly became nervous and told the unidentified person he didn’t know what to do, drove off and headed home.

That person contacted police and told investigators that Garcia’s truck was dented in the on the front of the driver side and the hood of the front passenger side was raised — damage that investigators found consistent with damage received when striking or running over a pedestrian.

Garcia turned himself in after an arrest warrant was issued for his arrest. His vehicle was seized with the help of Sunland Park Police and New Mexico State Police.

Gissell Martinez was a student at Lincoln Middle School and was on life support for several days.

Connie Martinez, Gissell’s great grandmother told ABC-7, “My baby is not here anymore. we have to live without her now. There’s a big gap in our heart now, a hole that can never be replaced.”

Police said Martinez was walking with her nine-year-old brother when Garcia, who was traveling south on Montoya, struck her.

The family said Gissell would become an organ donor.

“She’s going to be somebody else’s hero, somebody’s angel. For sure, she’s our angel,” said Gissell’s stepfather, Luis Simental.