Arlington hit-and-run driver gets 5 years in prison

A 26-year-old Arlington man was sentenced to five years in prison Friday night for failing to stop to help a pedestrian he hit with his car last year.

The jury also sentenced Omar Bashir Mohammed to six years’ probation on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and injury to the elderly. Mohammed was convicted Thursday.

He hit Terence Pinkston, 74, who was on a sidewalk in the 2400 block of Ascension Boulevard in Arlington on Feb. 15, 2014. The blow sent Pinkston flying headfirst into a fence post, causing injuries that required a weeklong hospital stay and weeks of recovery in a rehabilitation facility.

Mohammed was arrested at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport after he boarded a plane headed for his native Jordan. The plane had backed away from the gate but was ordered to return when authorities learned he was aboard.

On Friday evening, prosecutor Heather Davenport said: “We were satisfied with the prison sentence of five years. I’m glad the jury held him accountable for what he did. He would have certainly escaped prosecution if it had not been for the combined efforts of Arlington police and Customs and Border Protection officials at DFW Airport.”

Mohammed’s family, including his wife, pleaded with the jury Friday to grant him probation. The wife seemed genuinely remorseful, and that may have struck a chord with the jury, Davenport said.

Mohammed must serve half his sentence before he is eligible for parole, Davenport said.

His attorney, Jim Shaw, argued that Mohammed tried to leave the country because he was in a strange land, unaccustomed to American habits and legal traditions.

“He’s a Muslim who might not be from here, who does not look like us, who freaks out, and he leaves,” Shaw said during closing arguments in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. “He fears prison. He fears sodomy. He fears everything that could happen to a 125-pound person in there.”

Mohammed is an adult with a car and a job, prosecutor Chris McGregor said Thursday in closing arguments.

“The fact is that this man hit Terry Pinkston and left him to die on the street like a dog,” McGregor said.

On Thursday, Omar Mohammed’s brother, Anas Mohammed, was sent to jail on a contempt-of-court finding by state District Judge Wayne Salvant. Anas Mohammed is scheduled to be released Saturday, Davenport said.

Anas Mohammed was taking pictures of jurors, Salvant said. The judge ordered that the cellphone be examined to ensure that the photos were not transmitted to other devices or stored.

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Arlington hit-and-run driver gets 5 years in prison."