Corvallis man arrested in La Pine hit-and-run crash
A Corvallis man was arrested Saturday night, accused of a hit-and-run crash in La Pine that sent a La Pine man to the hospital, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said Sunday.
Deputies were dispatched around 5:30 p.m. to the area of Burgess and Huntington roads on the reported vehicle-vs.-pedestrian crash, Sgt. Troy Gotchy said in a news release.
Arriving deputies contacted the victim and learned the crash had occurred in the area of Day Road and Buena Vista Drive, Gotchy said. The name of the victim, a 30-year-old La Pine man, was not released due to the ongoing investigation.
La Pine Rural Fire District medics took the man to St. Charles Bend for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigating deputies were able to identify the driver as a man named Jason and learned he was driving a Lexus SUV, Gotchy said. They also learned the man was leaving a home on Twin Drive in La Pine, and several deputies responded to that area.
Meanwhile, the vehicle, a tan 2000 Lexus RX3, was spotted by a sheriff’s sergeant at the boat ramp at La Pine State Park.
The suspect, Jason Leonard Corona, 38, of Corvallis, was taken into custody without incident and brought to the county jail in Bend, where he was booked on charges of felony hit-and-run (failure to perform the duties of a driver), second-degree attempted assault, fourth-degree assault, reckless driving and reckless endangerment. He remained held Sunday on $40,000 bail.
Court records for Corona show a lengthy criminal history, mostly in Linn and Benton counties, though he was cited July 23 by Oregon State Police for speeding on Highway 97 in Deschutes County.
The records show he pleaded guilty in March 2002 to first-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault and received a roughly two-year prison term. He also was convicted of second-degree assault and menacing in 2004, bringing a 70-month prison term, and of assaulting a public safety officer in 2006, resulting in a 25-month prison term.
