A 24-year-old woman accused in a hit-and-run crash in which a bicyclist was fatally injured last year in South Los Angeles was today barred from driving a motor vehicle while her case is pending.
Mariah Banks appeared before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa Sullivan and pleaded not guilty to one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death or serious injury to another person and one misdemeanor count of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.
“The court is going to order the defendant not to drive a motor vehicle, period,” Sullivan told the defendant during the court hearing, noting that the issue could be re-evaluated at a later date.
Banks is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Aug. 29, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to allow the case to proceed to trial.
The charges stem from an April 10, 2018, collision in which Frederick Richon Frazier was struck by a white Porsche Cayenne SUV at Manchester and Normandie avenues. The 22-year-old man died at a hospital.
Banks was arrested about a month later in Moreno Valley, and police recovered the Cayenne.
“They painted the Porsche black—real cheap paint job, looks like with a brush or possibly spray cans,” Los Angeles police Detective Ryan Moreno said last year.
Banks was freed on bond a day after her arrest, according to jail records.
