SAIPAN – The man DPS described Saturday as a pedestrian struck alongside a woman by a vehicle that fled the scene is now charged with second-degree murder in her death, and the sworn police declaration supporting his arrest describes him pushing her outside the hospital, getting into his truck and driving off with her in front of it.
Delvin Joe Elieisar Rios, 24, appeared in Superior Court Monday morning on charges of second-degree murder, vehicular homicide, assault with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence assault and battery, and driving under the influence in the death of 31-year-old Baybie SN. Hocog, who was pronounced dead at the Commonwealth Health Center early Saturday.
Bail was set at $100,000 cash. Rios, who appeared in custody of the Department of Corrections and without counsel, was ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the victim’s family, to surrender travel documents, to stay away from seaports and airports, and to consume no alcohol. He was remanded to Corrections custody, and the court appointed the Public Defender’s Office, with Emily Thomsen taking the case. Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas appeared for the government. A preliminary hearing and arraignment are set for Monday, August 31, at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 217A.
The arrest warrant, approved by Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio at 6:42 p.m. Saturday on the written declaration of Traffic Investigator Eric Cepeda and served on Rios in Garapan at 8:18 that night, was e-filed Monday morning.
According to Cepeda’s declaration of probable cause, DPS Central dispatched units at 3:41 a.m. Saturday to a reported auto-pedestrian hit and run in front of Paradise Hotel on Chalan Pale Arnold. Traffic Officer Francis Leightley arrived at 3:46 a.m. and found Hocog on her back, unresponsive and covered in blood in the southbound lane, with Rios on top of her. Medics began CPR at 3:53 a.m.; Hocog was pronounced dead at CHCC at 3:58 a.m. Leightley reported Rios’s eyes were dilated, bloodshot and watery, with a strong odor of intoxicants on his breath.
That afternoon, the declaration states, Lieutenant Catherine Pangelinan received cellphone video of an incident outside CHCC, and investigators interviewed the anonymous witness who recorded it. The witness, at the hospital because their partner was admitted, heard a loud engine, looked out a window and saw a white pickup at the CHCC middle entrance gate with a sedan blocking it. According to the declaration, the witness recorded Rios coming out of the pickup and pushing Hocog; Hocog walking to the front of the truck; Rios pulling her away; Hocog walking back to the front of the truck; and Rios getting in and driving off south while she was in front of it, after which the witness no longer saw her. The witness said the truck stopped in front of Paradise Hotel in the southbound outer lane, then sped off again from the spot where the ambulance later picked Hocog up.
Cepeda wrote that he arrived at 4:34 a.m. to find Rios’s truck crashed into a fence north of Paradise Hotel, and that when the truck was lifted for towing, he saw blood and fatty tissue along the right frame next to the front right tire.
DPS’s Saturday release described preliminary information that Rios and Hocog “had been walking together when they were struck by a vehicle that left the area,” and said officers processed Rios for reckless driving and DUI after his medical evaluation. The declaration filed with the court describes no fleeing third vehicle. The department has not addressed the difference; the release said no further information would be released while the investigation continues.
