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Police: After night of drinking and gambling, motorist kills jogger

(AP) Buzzed on vodka-cranberry cocktails and brandy during a nine-hour poker binge at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Marc Evan Graves lost control on the drive home Wednesday and killed a woman out for a morning jog, state police charged.

Graves, 52, 4213 Blue Mountain Crossing, East Stroudsburg, faces charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, DUI and assorted traffic citations. He is in Monroe County Correctional Facility in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Graves struck and killed Lorraine Hamel as she jogged about 7:30 a.m. on Route 940 in Paradise Township, according to a criminal complaint filed by trooper Matthew Mascaro, stationed at the Stroudsburg barracks.

A witness driving behind Graves when he crashed, Timothy Jon Krause, told troopers he saw Graves veer off the right shoulder of the road and then abruptly overcorrect, shooting across the road and into a tree and berm. He also said Hamel was obscured by dust and debris from the impact.

Graves told troopers he “may have looked down” before the crash and noticed he was off the right shoulder, causing him to jerk the wheel to the left.

Graves’ 2008 Nissan Rogue rolled onto its left side. Hamel lay dead behind the vehicle. Emergency crews put Graves in the back of an ambulance. A white sheet was put over Hamel’s body.

Graves admitted to drinking three cocktails and a shot of brandy while playing poker for nine hours at Mount Airy from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. He left at 7:30 a.m. to begin the 20-minute drive home. A preliminary hearing is set for 10 a.m. March 15.