A lady driver who dyed her hair pink, wore blue contact lenses and got a face tattoo to change her looks after leaving the scene of a hit-and-run that killed a high school band instructor was sentenced this week to six years in state prison.
Tracy Clapp, 36, of Santa Ana pleaded guilty to 11 felony counts she was charged with after the April 20 incident that took the life of Christopher Chavez.
The 26-year-old drum line teacher at Saddleback High School was walking through a crosswalk at Bristol Street and Central Avenue around 2:15 a.m. when he was struck by an SUV that ran a red light.
The driver, Clapp, saw that Chavez was injured but drove on. He was taken to Orange County Global Medical Center, where he was declared brain-dead and later taken off of life support.
Tips from the community led investigators to Clapp, who fled in a stolen car as police closed in. After a chase and altercation with cops, she was hauled in.
Fortunately for her, pink hair looks smashing with an orange jumpsuit.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.