Odilion Paz-Salvador is under arrest for murder, driving under the influence, wanton endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident and fleeing and evading after the truck he was driving hit and killed Lexington, KY attorney Mark Hinkel.
Odilon Paz-Salvador told the arresting officer he had drunk six beers and smoked marijuana before the fatal crash at 1235 Lemons Mill Road Saturday, according to the police report.
Georgetown Police Captain Robert Swanigan said Hinkel was westbound when he was hit head-on by an oncoming pickup truck on Lemons Mill Road at 3:39 p.m. Swanigan said the truck had gone off the right side of the road, then crossed both lanes and hit Hinkel.
Other cyclists were riding with Hinkel and saw the crash occur, he said.
“The cyclist actually came to rest in the bed of the pickup,” Swanigan said.
He said the truck driver, Odilon Paz-Salvador, continued down Lemons Mill and turned right onto Lisle Road, where a sheriff’s deputy saw Hinkel in the truck bed and pursued. Paz-Salvador pulled over at Spindletop mobile home park, Swanigan said.
Glen Worrell and his wife Elizabeth said they were riding in the right lane of Lemons Mill Road and less than six feet away from Hinkel when the collision happened.
They saw “a large black pickup truck” coming toward them, Glen said.
“I was forced to make quick a decision, because if I didn’t do anything it looked like we’re going to get hit,” he said. “I basically have a image of a, more or less, an explosion in front of a truck with stuff just flying.”
Elizabeth didn’t see the crash, but said she heard a loud noise. The truck missed Glen and Elizabeth by less than a foot.
Hinkel, who was married to Mary Lynn Minton Hinkel for 35 years, was a graduate of the University of Kentucky Law School. He was a partner at the Lexington law firm Landrum & Shouse LLP. A father and grandfather, Hinkel was also Athletic Director at Christ the King School.
Gino Donatelli, acting pastor of Cathedral of Christ the King, spoke with the Hinkel family Sunday and Monday.
“They’re in shock,” he said. “He (Mark Hinkel) left that morning, he said ‘goodbye’ to his wife, gave her a kiss. It was another day on the weekend. And they got that call. It’s always traumatic. … They’re struggling, but their faith is good.”
