Hit, run wreck results in arrest of man

Cape Girardeau police named a 20-year-old man as the rogue driver in Thursday's hit-and-run incident at the intersection of William and Pacific streets that sent an Illinois couple's car crashing into a house.

Brandon W. Walls of Cape Girardeau was charged Friday with a class D felony for leaving the scene of an accident, a class A misdemeanor of driving with a revoked license and two class C misdemeanors for no insurance and failure to yield the right of way.

Walls has a bond of $5,000 and was transported to the Cape Girardeau County Jail Friday.

The wreck resulted in injuries for driver Louise Coursey, 87, and her husband, Taylor Coursey, 91, both of Olive Branch, Ill., said police Sgt. Jack Wimp.

Louise Coursey spent Friday recovering from the incident at home in Olive Branch, her face covered with bruises and cuts.

"My face looks like it went through a food chopper," she said. "But it's just bruised up, mostly."

Her husband was not released from St. Francis Medical Center until Friday evening. He suffered a gash on his right eye, she said. Doctors aren't sure whether he will regain full sight in the injured eye.

"They gave him some drops to use over the weekend, but he has to go back on Monday," Louise Coursey said.

The Courseys had spent part of the day shopping in Cape Girardeau and were headed back home east on William before their 1994 Mazda was struck from behind.

The impact knocked the Coursey's car across oncoming lanes of traffic, over a concrete divider separating a sidewalk from the parking lot of Knaup's Floral and through a white picket fence before it finally smashed into some steps on the side of the house, located at the 800 block of William Street, next to the flower shop.

"It was frightening," Louise Coursey said. "Though, there was not much time to be afraid. There was a big 'boom' on the back of our car and then we went careening across the road. It happened in an instant."

Police found the suspect's car parked a few blocks away from the crash and spent Thursday afternoon matching broken parts to it they had found near the Coursey's car.

A passerby spotted a man matching Walls' description apparently fleeing the area on foot, police Sgt. Rick Schmidt said.

The car driven by the suspect was reported stolen by its owner later after the accident Thursday, but that allegation is still under investigation, Schmidt said.

Walls pleaded guilty in July to third-degree domestic assault and third-degree assault with injury and was placed on two years probation.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160