Local Attorney ID's Cartersville Man Suspected in Athens Hit-and-Run

Updated 4 p.m.

Attorney Tony Perrotta tells Cartersville Patch that Wilson Heaton, who apparently grew up near Athens in Oconee County, has extended family in Bartow County, where he works in the farming industry. 

Perrotta said Heaton would turn himself in if charged in connection with the alleged hit-and-run in Athens.

"We've offered to surrender since the Saturday it happened," Perrotta said, adding he "can't say" whether Heaton was driving the red pick-up truck that struck Emily Bowman and left the scene. "We're not running, we're right here in Cartersville."

Perrotta added the Heaton family is praying for the 19-year-old hit-and-run victim.

"The family holds daily prayer vigils for Emily and is praying for her recovery," he said.

Wilson Heaton's father, Billy Heaton, is an elementary school principal in Oconee County. His mother, Tara Heaton, lives in Watkinsville.

Original Report

An attorney has identified the suspected hit-and-run driver of Emily Bowman, 19, who is recovering from severe injuries she sustained Feb. 16 in Athens, as William Wilson Heaton, 22, of Cartersville.

He has yet to be arrested but does have an attorney, Anthony Perrotta, who has been in touch with Athens Clarke County Police, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. Police have logged hundreds of hours, trying to piece together the events of the night for Heaton, through interviews and camera footage, to establish where he was, and when, and what he was doing.

Complicating the case is that, according to Lt. Don Eckert of the ACC Police Traffic Unit, someone tampered with evidence, according to the newspaper. He wouldn't say what the evidence was or who had tampered with it or how they had done so. Helping in the investigation are detectives from the Criminal Investigations Unit and special agents from the GBI.

Although Heaton has never been booked into the Bartow County jail, according to Sgt. Jonathan Rogers, he was arrested in Athens in 2011 and 2009 on charges of underage consumption of alcohol, The Red & Black reported.

On Sunday, on the Facebook page the Bowman family is using to keep people informed about Emily, her uncle, Neal Bowman, said Emily is still non-responsive though her eyes do open.

The 19-year-old Kennesaw University student and Woodstock native has been taken completely off a ventilator and is now breathing through a tube placed in her trachea "that provides moist, oxygenated air," Neal Bowman wrote.

Someone from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta will visit on Monday to evaluate Emily for possible admission to the facility.

"It'll be great if we can have her closer to home," he wrote.

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