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Man given 14 years for hit and run on US Hwy 377

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A 32-year-old Cleburne man pled guilty to felony driving while intoxicated and failure to stop and render aid charges Thursday in district court in Weatherford and was sentenced to 14 years in prison on both cases.

Robert Douglas Rudzavice, Jr. was charged in connection with a December 2015 hit and run crash on U.S. Highway 377 in southeastern Parker County.

“Shortly before the crash, the defendant was fleeing from a Tarrant County Sheriff’s deputy at speeds of over 100 mph,” said Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain, who prosecuted the case.  “That pursuit stopped when Mr. Rudzavice entered Parker County, but at some point after that, he must have turned around and then struck another vehicle going northbound in the southbound lanes, sending the driver of that car to the hospital.  The defendant fled from the scene and, after a suspicious person call from a local resident, he was found by state troopers and Parker County Sheriff’s deputies and arrested about a quarter mile from the scene of the wreck.”

Rudzavice denied having anything to do with the wreck, saying that his girlfriend had just dropped him off but that he had no idea where he was.  When officers found keys to the vehicle that caused the wreck in his pocket and confronted him, Rudzavice said, “just take me to jail, dude.”  He refused to complete any sobriety tests, but Rudzavice’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.174, which is double the legal limit of 0.08, Swain said.

“Were it not for that citizen calling police to report something out of the ordinary, this defendant may not have been apprehended that night and we would not have a blood test to prove that he was driving drunk,” Swain said.

The victim of the wreck suffered a concussion and some other minor injuries, but was treated and released from the hospital the same day.

Rudzavice had two prior DWI convictions and a 2012 burglary of a habitation case for which a jury sentenced him to 10 years in prison.  He was paroled in 2014, Swain said.

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