Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
March 4, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Newton, Mo., woman charged with murder in connection to a hit-and-run last year in the Northeast has been apprehended.

Deanna Holleran, 27, was charged last December with second-degree murder, first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident, and three counts of second-degree assault for a hit-and-run that claimed the life of Marianna Hernandez-Gonzales and seriously injured her children. She was arrested on Feb. 26, 2016.

Holleran was believed to be the driver of the fatal hit and run that happened on Sept. 15, 2015, at the intersection of Ninth Street and Hardesty Avenue. In a press release from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s office late last year, it said Holleran faces felony murder charges based on the fact that Hernandez-Gonzales was killed in a motor vehicle collision that resulted from the Holleran’s perpetration of the class C felony of tampering.
According to court records, police were dispatched to the area of Ninth and Hardesty and found Hernandez-Gonzales dead at the scene with her overturned Chevy Tahoe and a heavily damaged vehicle were nearby. The victim was ejected from the vehicle. Hernandez-Gonzales’s husband and six children were also in the vehicle, three children were transported to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.

Holleran allegedly told police she knew the vehicle she was driving was stolen and that she had been using methamphetamines and marijuana prior to getting into the vehicle. She also stated as she approached the Ninth and Hardesty intersection, she knew she had a red light. However, at the time, they were being chased and shot at by another vehicle.

“Out of fear for her life, she said she closed her eyes and gunned it,” the report says. Then the accident occurred.

Holleran’s bond has been set at $500,000. No court date has yet been scheduled.