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KINGSTON TWP. — Hit-and-run homicide suspect Michael John Scavone at first invoked his right to remain silent.

Then he learned Paula Jones was dead, a Luzerne County detective said Monday.

“I wish it were me,” Detective Lt. Gary Capitano alleged Scavone told him in June. “I wish it were me.”

Scavone, 50, of Harveys Lake, buried his face in his shackled hands and cried as Capitano testified at a preliminary hearing before District Judge James Tupper.

Tupper forwarded each of the eight charges against the man to county court, including homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence of alcohol.

Scavone, a repeat DUI offender, is charged with killing Jones, a 31-year-old triathlete from Factoryville, in a June 7 hit-and-run crash. Police say the woman was running along a straight stretch of Lakeside Drive when Scavone struck her and drove away.

Investigators at the scene found a shoe and a wristwatch they believe belonged to Jones scattered among debris from a vehicle, Capitano said.

According to testimony from Harveys Lake police Officer Brian Gasper and Dallas Borough police Officer David Rinehimer, police recovered an antenna, a portion of a wheel well, part of a mirror and headlight components.

From part of the headlight, investigators determined a Honda was involved in the crash, the officers said, and within about an hour he located a white Honda CRV with front-end damage parked at a residence near the scene of the crash.

The damage to the vehicle was consistent with the debris recovered from the scene, Rinehimer said, and the vehicle appeared to have a substance which looked like blood on the exterior.

The defendant’s mother Rosemary Scavone told Rinehimer she owned the car and said her son had been driving it, the officer said.

“He’s probably drunk,” she allegedly said.

According to Rinehimer’s testimony, the woman woke her son and he told police he had driven the car and had been drinking all day. When asked how many drinks he had, Michael Scavone allegedly responded, “I”m lucky I made it home.”

Rinehimer said Scavone appeared intoxicated at the time of the interview and agreed to submit to a blood test.

Analysis of Scavone’s blood indicated he had a blood-alcohol level of .214 some two hours after the crash, Capitano testified.

Following the blood test, Scavone declined to give a statement to police and was free to leave, Capitano said, but the man stuck around the Harveys Lake police station waiting for an officer to take him home.

Capitano said he was typing a probable cause affidavit for a search warrant for the Honda when Scavone began calling himself “worthless” over and over.

“She’s dead isn’t she?” he allegedly asked.

Capitano said Jones had died at which point Scavone opened up, the detective testified.

Scavone told Capitano he spent the day drinking beer and Yukon Jack liqueur and didn’t know how much he’d had to drink, Capitano said.

“I hit something. I knew I hit something, but I thought it was a car or a guide rail,” Jones allegedly told Capitano.

Scavone said he believed he stopped and looked around after the collision, but was so “annihilated” drunk he drove home and went straight to sleep, Capitano testified.

Witnesses nearby the crash said they heard “a very loud thump,” the detective said, but none could place Scavone at the scene.

Defense attorney John Pike made note of this point in his arguments, indicating also that Capitano had not included several of Scavone’s alleged comments in the criminal complaint against the man.

“I think it’s more relevant that he admitted to driving the vehicle that struck the victim,” Capitano said.

Pike also made repeated reference in his questioning to a 911 call reporting a light-blue minivan spotted leaving the area of the crash.

Rinehimer said the report was unsubstantiated, and investigation at the crash site led police to determine the minivan had been travelling in the opposite direction in which the crash occurred.

Another point of questioning involved a yellow dumpster near the crash which Pike suggested may have been in the road and could have acted as a visual obstruction. Rinehimer and Gasper each said the dumpster was not in the road.

The attorney further questioned Capitano’s statement that witnesses from the bars Scavone allegedly visited on June 7 would be available to testify at trial when the businesses are denying liability in a civil suit against them.

Filed in August, the suit claims negligence, saying the businesses are liable in Jones’ death because they served Scavone alcoholic beverages despite his visible intoxication. Named in the initial complaint are several people associated with Grotto Pizza and the American Legion Post 672 in Dallas.

“The family has waited long enough for the preliminary hearing, and we look forward to going to trial,” said Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis.

Salavantis is prosecuting Scavone along with assistant district attorneys Thomas Hogans and Michelle Hardik.

Salavantis said she wanted to get personally involved because the case should be the county’s first application of Kevin’s Law, legislation passed last year that increased the minimum prison sentence for leaving the scene of an accident involving death from one year to three years.

The District Attorney’s Office worked with state legislators to pass the law named in memory of 5-year-old Kevin Miller, a Dallas boy killed in a December 2012 hit-and-run crash.

Police escort Michael Scavone to a preliminary hearing Monday morning on charges of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL092915Scavone.jpg.optimal.jpgPolice escort Michael Scavone to a preliminary hearing Monday morning on charges of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence. Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

Jones
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_paula_jones.jpg.optimal.jpgJones Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

Police escort Michael Scavone to a preliminary hearing Monday morning on charges of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_TTL092915Scavone2.jpg.optimal.jpgPolice escort Michael Scavone to a preliminary hearing Monday morning on charges of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence. Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

By James O’Malley

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Reach James O’Malley at 570-991-6390 or on Twitter @TL_omalley.