Ossining man pleads not guilty in hit-and-run crash that killed pedestrian in March

An Ossining man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the hit-and-run crash that killed a 62-year-old pedestrian in Mount Pleasant in March.

Fabricio Arguda Saldana, 35, was arraigned in Westchester County Court on an indictment charging him with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

On March 4 at about 6:20 p.m., Saldana allegedly drove his 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee into John Foote as the victim was crossing Saw Mill River Road in Hawthorne. Saldana did not stop and did not report the accident, police said.

Witness accounts of the accident helped police identify the car and the Westchester County police Real Time Crime Center used license plate readers to track it to Ossining a few hours later.

When questioned by Mount Pleasant detectives later that night, Saldana acknowledged seeing someone crossing the street and hitting them because he did not have enough time to brake, according to a court document. He insisted he had not been speeding at the time.

The indictment charge was the same as the one when Saldana was arrested the night of the accident. He was released on $100,000 bond at that time and state Supreme Court Justice Anne Minihan kept the bail amount the same on Tuesday.