Affidavit: Co-worker reported hearing suspect say she hit woman in Tyler incident

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A Tyler woman who is accused in a fatal hit-and-run vehicle-pedestrian incident that occurred on N. Broadway Ave. on Feb. 19 told her co-workers at a gas station that she thought she had struck and killed Kelsey Raye Hise, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Chatiryn Butler, 18, was booked into the Smith County Jail on a felony accident involving a death charge on March 21. She was released later that day after she posted bail on a bond amount of $100,000.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the Tyler Police Department detective who obtained the arrest warrant was dispatched out to the 1200 block of North Broadway Avenue at about 7:40 p.m. on Feb. 19 about an accident involving a pedestrian. Dispatch told the TPD detective that one caller said the woman lying in the street was struggling to breathe.

When the TPD detective got to the scene, a patrol sergeant told her that Hise was found by two people who drove by and saw her in the street. The detective was told that the case was a hit-and-run, and that no witnesses or suspects had come forward.

The detective learned that patrol officers had contact with Hise in the past, the affidavit stated.

According to the affidavit, a 911 call came into dispatch at about 6:50 p.m. on Feb. 19. The caller requested a welfare check for a woman with red, curly hair in a red sweater who ran into the street, stopped his car, and asked to use his phone.

“The caller advised the female did not seem in her right mind and wanted officers to check on her,” the affidavit stated. “Officers arrived at approximately 7 p.m. and checked the area but did not locate the female.”

Later, the TPD detective got in touch with a woman who lived at a residence in the 1200 block of N. Broadway Ave. The house’s occupant told the detective that Hise had been living with her on and off for the last year and that she had an off-and-on relationship with the woman’s brother.

The woman told the detective that she saw Hise dancing in the middle of Broadway Avenue at about 7 to 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 19, the affidavit stated. The woman said Hise came inside a short time later, and they dead-bolted the front door to keep Hise inside.

The woman told the TPD detective that she didn’t see hear anything involving the accident.

While processing the scene, the TPD sergeant found the glass insert for a driver’s side mirror, the affidavit stated. He got the model number from it and forwarded it to a Tyler Police Department detective, who contacted the National Insurance Crime Bureau. An NICB special agent told him that the mirror part belonged to a 2006 to 2007 Toyota Camry.

Then on Feb. 25, Public Information Officer Andrew Erbaugh released a public service announcement about the accident that included a description of the vehicle based on the information from the NICB, the affidavit stated.

In the affidavit, the TPD detective said she got an anonymous tip that said Butler, who worked at Wally’s Gas Station on MLK Jr. Blvd. had told multiple co-workers and customers that she believed she had hit and killed Hise on Feb. 19. The caller also said Butler drives a silver 2007 Toyota Camry.

Two Tyler PD detectives ran the car’s license plate and went to Butler’s residence in the 2900 block of Shiloh Road on Feb. 25. When they found the Camry, they noticed that it had damage in several areas, including a missing glass insert for the driver’s-side mirror, the affidavit stated.

The TPD detectives knocked on Butler’s apartment door, but no one answered. They also got no answer when they called her most recent listed phone number. They left a card for Butler.

Butler called one of the detectives from a different phone number on March 1, the affidavit stated. According to the affidavit, Butler’s statements were “intentionally vague and evasive.”

Butler allegedly told the TPD detective that a red truck had struck her vehicle on Shiloh Road and then said that the truck struck her while she was turning into a parking lot. Eventually, Butler claimed the red truck hit her vehicle when she was turning into a parking spot at her apartment complex and that was what happened to her mirror, the affidavit stated.

The TPD detective who got the arrest warrant spoke to Butler’s co-workers at Wally’s Gas Station, and one of them told her that customers came in on Feb. 19 and said a woman had been struck by a vehicle on N. Broadway Ave. The customers also allegedly told the employee that Butler told them sometime after Feb. 19 that she believed she had struck Hise, the affidavit stated.

The employee also told the TPD detective that they asked Butler what happened, and she told them that she had found out that day the “lady had died,” the affidavit stated. Butler also allegedly said, “She thought it was a man that she had hit, and she didn’t know they died.”

The employees told the TPD detective that they were surprised by Butler’s demeanor because “she did not seem distraught and did not seem remorseful,” the affidavit stated.

According to the affidavit, Butler’s co-workers told her she needed to tell police what had happened, but she refused.

Later, the TPD detective held the glass mirror insert up to the driver’s side mirror mount of Butler’s Camry and found that it was a match, the affidavit stated.

When the TPD detective spoke to another of Butler’s co-workers, the person said that Butler told her that she thought she had hit someone on Broadway Ave., but she didn’t see anyone in the street and drove off, the affidavit stated. The co-worker said Butler, who she considers a friend talked to her about it several times because she was “stressed and devastated.”

“They believe based on what Butler told them, it was an accident,” the affidavit stated.

RELATED:

+ Tyler woman accused in pedestrian death turns self in

+ Warrant issued for suspect in fatal Tyler hit and run crash

+ Woman dies at hospital after being struck by vehicle on N. Broadway Ave.

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