Ont. woman accused in deadly hit-and-run takes stand, ‘I had no idea what I hit’

Family of fatal hit-and-run victim speak in court The family of a man killed in a hit-and-run in Springwater in 2018 gave their emotional victim impact statements in court on Thursday.

The Newmarket woman accused of a hit-and-run that claimed the life of a 27-year-old man in Springwater Township five years ago took the stand on Tuesday in her defence, telling the court she never knew what she had hit that morning.

"I have nothing to hide. I was driving. I did nothing wrong," Miamuna Baldeh testified in the Barrie courtroom, charged with failing to stop at an accident causing death.

The defence said the 35-year-old woman was on her way to work in Thornbury from Newmarket around 5 a.m. on May 5, 2018. The court heard she never arrived for work that day.

Dominik Adamek was walking along Wilson Road near Carson Road that same morning on his way home after a night out. The court heard he was struck by a vehicle between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., and his body was found in a farmer's field, having suffered multiple blunt trauma.

Baldeh told the court she was driving behind a truck on a "completely dark" Wilson Road that morning.

"All of a sudden, I heard a noise, and suddenly I saw my windshield cracked," she testified. "All I could think of was something fell off that truck and hit me," she added.

The court heard Baldeh was startled and that it never occurred to her she may have hit a person.

"Never crossed my mind at all," she stated. "I kept going, following the truck that was in front of me."

She said she kept driving despite the damage to her windshield and eventually stopped to call her boyfriend.

During its cross-examination, the Crown suggested she didn't call the police following the collision because it would have interfered with her plans to become a Canadian citizen.

"I didn't call the police because I don't know what hit my car," Baldeh replied. "I didn't even see what I had hit or what had hit my car."

Baldeh came to Canada in 2014 and became a citizen in 2020. She was working as a personal support worker in 2018 in Thornbury.

The Crown then suggested Baldeh saw Adamek in the road and veered to the left, to which the accused responded, "I didn't even stop," maintaining it was too dark to see anything and that she was sure something had fallen off the truck travelling ahead of her.

The allegations against the accused have not been proven in court.