Man charged in hit-and-run death pleads not guilty

Feb. 15--The 55-year-old Norwood man accused of striking and killing a beloved Watertown teacher with his pickup truck and taking off admitted he was too afraid to stop when he thought he struck a person last Friday in Somerville, according to police reports.

Edward Clark pleaded not guilty in Somerville District Court on Friday to charges of leaving the scene of an accident causing death. He was ordered to refrain from alcohol and drug use, not possess a firearm or weapon, not drive, surrender his passport and be subject to GPS monitoring.

Clark is accused of killing Allison Donovan, 40, of Somerville, in the hit-and-run accident shortly after 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at a crosswalk at Powder House Boulevard. A second woman, Jessica Spangler, 38, of Somerville, was also hit and taken to the hospital but released.

Minutes after hitting the women and taking off, Clark went to his girlfriend's in Medford and the couple enjoyed dinner like nothing happened, prosecutors said.

"Multiple people on scene described a black pickup truck not stopping," said Assistant District Attorney Terence Kiernan. "He went to his girlfriend's apartment in Medford. His plans were uninterrupted by having killed someone Friday night."

The death of Donovan, a longtime teacher in Watertown, has devastated the community,

Donovan's family and friends gathered at the Somerville courthouse Friday said they were grateful to police and that Allison is getting justice.

"We want to thank the Somerville Police Department for all their hard work and in addition Tufts University Police for doing what they've done," Mark Donovan, Allison's brother, said. "We're still mourning Allison. This doesn't bring her back."

Police nabbed the suspect after a Tufts University police officer found a pickup truck, described after the incident as a 2003 black Ford F-150 with front-end damage, on University Avenue and notified Somerville police.

Somerville police contacted Clark about the investigation. Though at first he denied being in the area Friday night, he appeared "extremely nervous," according to the police report, and gave inconsistent information.

Police also found several repair jobs done on the front end of Clark's vehicle, making it at first hard to determine if the damage was similar to damage that would result from an accident.

After speaking with police, Clark was later seen leaving work, visiting an insurance company, buying an alcoholic drink at a convenience store and then going to a Malden mechanic shop.

At the car shop, police seized the pickup truck after Clark appeared to attempt to have more work done on his vehicle that would have destroyed evidence.

Clark, in an interview with police, later admitted he had been involved with the deadly accident, but was not sure what he had hit.

"Initially, he said he thought it may have been a construction cone, a barrel, parked car or that he had struck a sidewalk," the police report said. "But later in the interview said that he believed he struck a person and was too afraid to stop at the scene or come forward after he realized the extent of the damage."

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan's office said additional charges are likely. Clark is due back in court on March 15.

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