Search warrants detail how Durham police found accused hit-and-run driver
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A witness said an orange or red Jeep Wrangler with a hard top struck Richard Ferguson Jr.
- Wilmer Fuentes Mejia, 30, was arrested in the hit-and-run.
- Investigators noted vehicle damage and blue fibers tied to the victim.
Minutes after 61-year-old Richard Ferguson Jr. was fatally injured, Durham police knew the vehicle they should be looking for.
“A witness told responding officers that the vehicle was an orange or red Jeep Wrangler with a hard top,” court documents state.
Three days later, Wilmer Fuentes Mejia, 30, would be arrested in Ferguson’s death and on an outstanding DWI warrant. He faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, driving while his license was revoked for impairment and failure to maintain lane control.
Here’s how police connected the dots.
A neighbor’s tip
Police were called to the 900 block of Chalk Level Road about 10:45 p.m. Sept. 13 after Ferguson was struck while standing near a bus stop. An orange Jeep traveling west on Chalk Level Road had veered off the road, hitting a banner for a nearby apartment complex and a bus stop sign.
Then, the Jeep struck Ferguson, court documents say.
He died about 40 minutes later at the hospital, according to search warrants. Durham police spread the word about the eyewitness account of the orange Jeep in a news release the next day.
Two days after the incident, a resident of a nearby apartment complex called investigators to say a red Jeep normally parked outside every day had not been seen since the date of the crash, warrants state.
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A police database search for newer Jeeps registered in Durham County included a Jeep Wrangler registered at Fuentes Mejia’s address, according to search warrants. Fuentes Mejia lived at the same complex as the tipster.
When police spoke to Fuentes Mejia, he claimed he’d hit a concrete post in a supermarket parking lot, the warrants state. He gave police an address for a mechanic shop where the Jeep had been towed, and when investigators looked at the Jeep, it had significant damage, including:
- A front right wheel that had apparently been sheared off.
- A dent in the center of the front bumper.
- Cracking of the plastic area around the front left headlight.
- The hood had been pushed in and up above the front left headlight.
- A missing left headlight lens.
- The light assembly had sunk into the grill.
Police also noticed blue fibers on the front left corner of the bumper, according to the warrants. Ferguson was wearing blue pants when he was killed.
Fuentes Mejia later told police he was “intoxicated” when he left his apartment that night and didn’t remember any crashes besides the one at the supermarket, the warrants state.
The Durham resident had already previously pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in a May 2023 incident in Durham County. He was given two months of unsupervised probation and ordered to surrender his driver’s license for a year, The News & Observer previously reported.
When Fuentes Mejia was arrested in Ferguson’s death, he was also served with an outstanding misdemeanor DWI warrant from 2020, The N&O reported. In that incident, he was charged after he blew almost twice the legal alcohol limit on a breath test.
Fuentes Mejia remained in jail on $5 million secured bail as of Thursday afternoon.
