By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
Robert Lee Glover, son of former state Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle, has been charged with a felony in the August hit- and-run death of a 39-year-old woman attempting to flag down motorists after she ran out of gas.
Lonoke County Prosecutor Chuck Graham officially charged Glover on Friday with failure to stop after an accident with injury or death, a class D felony punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison.
Kimberly Perkins of Lonoke County was killed at about 10 p.m. Aug. 24 on U.S. Hwy. 70 at Cypress Creek Road in Lonoke County. According to the affidavit for Glover’s arrest, witnesses saw her near the middle of the highway and then saw her struck by an SUV that didn’t stop.
By the end of August, Arkansas State Police investigators had determined that the SUV was a GMC Denali manufactured between 1999 and 2002.
On Sept. 1, Glover, 50, called the trooper investigating the hit and run and told him that he had hit a deer on the same day and at the same time and location.
He told State Police investigators on Sept. 2 that he had been to Zin Urban Beer and Wine Bar in Little Rock’s River Market on the evening of Aug. 24 and had drunk about three glasses of wine. He left there at 7:30 p.m. and headed to Marlsgate Plantation on Bearskin Lake Road in Lonoke County to visit David Garner, owner of Marlsgate and his friend since 1986. He left Marlsgate at about 9:15 p.m. and headed home.
Traveling on Hwy. 70 with fields on both sides, Glover told investigators he saw movement on the right side of his vehicle and then struck what he assumed was a deer. He said he didn’t stop until he reached Lonoke where he washed off the bugs that had covered his SUV when he passed the Anderson Minnow Farm, which is about 3 miles west of the crash site. He didn’t see any blood, but he did notice damage consistent with hitting a deer, Glover told investigators.
He called on Sept. 1 because he read about the hit and run, including the description of the vehicle, two days earlier, and “flipped out,” he said.
Investigators matched broken glass from the scene to the remains of a headlight in Glover’s Denali and also collected DNA evidence from the Denali.
On Sept. 5, Garner, Glover’s friend from Marlsgate, told investigators that Glover left Garner’s home at about 9 p.m. without consuming any more alcohol.
Garner told investigators that since he doesn’t drink alcohol, there was none in his home. He said Glover didn’t appear intoxicated.
Garner said Glover called him on Aug. 25 to tell him that he hit a deer on his way home and messed up his vehicle. He said Glover called him later to ask if he had heard anything about a woman being hit.
Garner said that if Glover had known it was a woman and not a deer, he would have stopped.
On Sept. 11, Glover declined to take a polygraph test. He was arrested earlier this week and was released from jail on a $2,500 bond.
His plea date in Lonoke County Circuit Court Division 1 is Jan. 22.
