Bloomington police have arrested Ellettsville native and Edgewood High School graduate Steven Matthew Finch for the Sept. 11 fatal hit-and-run of Johnny Shane Harden at the intersection of Moores Pike and Olcott Boulevard.
According to a police report filed by Capt. Joe Qualters of the Bloomington Police Department, the accident occurred just before 8 a.m., when Finch’s 1998 Pontiac Sunfire overtook Harden’s 2007 Suzuki GSX motorcycle.
Harden, 37, who was also a student at EHS for a short time, was not wearing a helmet when the passenger side of the Sunfire struck him.
When police arrived at the scene, Harden was lying in the middle of the road on Moores Pike with serious head trauma. His bike was on its side next to him.
During an interview with the police, Finch claimed to have been distracted by trying to connect his smartphone to the audio system in his car to listen to music from the Pandora Radio app.
According to Sgt. John Kovach, at first, Finch told police he was traveling west on Moores Pike and saw something through the glare of the sun that looked like a motorcycle come into his lane. He said he swerved to the left in an attempt to avoid a collision. He then ran over something like a speed bump. He reported to police that he thought it was a deer.
When Kovach told Finch that he could not have been facing glare while traveling west on Moores Pike just before 8 a.m., Finch’s story changed.
In the second version of Finch’s story, Kovach said the defendant was traveling east to get his son from home and give his wife a break. He said he was on his way to a mechanic’s shop and that his son liked cars, so he thought he would take him to the shop. He said he was trying to hook his phone up to his audio system. He could not see well because of glare from the sun and, as such, did not see his car overtaking the motorcyclist in front of him until it was too late.
He swerved to miss Harden’s bike, but could not avoid hitting him.
After the collision, Finch reportedly stopped and backed up to make a U-turn and leave the scene of the accident. In doing so, accident reconstructionists claimed that Finch ran over Harden’s body and dragged it underneath his car for a time before completing the U-turn.
Finch said he did not recall running over Harden’s body.
About 150 yards from the accident, Finch said he thought about stopping and turning back but figured it was too late since he had already left the scene. He also said he saw a woman stop and get out of her car as he was leaving, so he was not worried about the victim getting help.
Finch decided to drive to his parents’ house in Ellettsville rather than face the police at his family’s home. On the way, he stopped at a convenience store and bought a can of chewing tobacco. He said he also went to a car wash and tried to wash a black mark off his car but was afraid to look underneath it. Then, he went to his parents’ house and told his father what had happened.
Kovach, however, said that body tissues collected from underneath Finch’s vehicle and from the car wash suggested that Finch did try to wash the underside of his Sunfire, where, they allege, the victim had been lodged for a brief time after the collision.
Around 10 a.m., two hours after the accident, Finch turned himself in at the sheriff’s department. He told the police that he heard a news report about the accident on the radio and decided to turn himself in.
He was then transported to the Bloomington Police Department for an interview.
Finch was later charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death, according to a press release from the Bloomington Police Department, and booked into the Monroe County Jail. However, he was released on $1,000 bail at 2:33 p.m.
Finch has since been charged with two felonies: reckless homicide and failure to stop after a fatal accident. Both charges carry a possible prison sentence of two to eight years and up to $10,000 in fines.
An autopsy of Harden’s body took place on Sept. 12 in Terre Haute. A toxicology report for Finch is also pending.
Finch’s initial hearing was held on Sept. 14 at the Monroe County Circuit Court.
Jeff Kehr, first deputy prosecutor at the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, said Finch entered a not guilty plea and reported that he would be hiring his own attorney.
“No attorney has entered an appearance at this date, however,” Kehr said.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Nov. 8, 2012, at 3 p.m.
Records from the Monroe County Circuit Court indicate that Finch had received traffic citations for following too closely twice before, both times in 2005. Additionally, in 2008, he received a traffic infraction for operating a car without a driver’s license.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2012. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.