Clark County man faces preliminary charge of driving over ex-girlfriend with truck

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. – A woman run over by her ex-boyfriend’s truck tried to block the path of the vehicle moments before being struck, the man’s attorney and a witness said.

Mike Mathis, 60, of Jeffersonville, was arrested last week in the death of Pamela Fay and charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident and reckless homicide. He was released on $75,000 bond after his initial hearing Monday.

Fay, 47, of Louisville, Ky., was conscious when police arrived Friday night at the scene and told them that Mathis had struck her with his car, deputy prosecutor Bob Bottorff said. She died hours later, on Saturday, of internal injuries at University Hospital in Louisville.

Mathis’ attorney, Larry Wilder, said Fay confronted his client Friday night at the Clark County Casting and Conservation Club, a sportsman’s club. The two had been in a relationship for about two years, but it ended in August, he said.

“She threatened to hurt him, to get even with him,” Wilder said. Mathis “attempted to flee,” backing his truck to get around Fay in the parking lot as she blocked him and didn’t know she had been struck until he reached his home near the club.

However, Bottorff said Mathis intentionally left the scene of the accident.

Mathis, a dentist with a practice in Louisville, later surrendered to police alongside Wilder.

Sherri L. Banta, who had been at the club with Mathis and others, told police that she and Mathis attempted to leave  at about 9 p.m. after hearing that Fay was at the bar, but Fay “started yelling at them.”

As she left the club, Banta told police, Fay followed her, “demanding to know who she was and why she was with” Mathis.

Banta told police that as she was walking to a friend’s house, she saw Mathis trying to drive out of the parking lot and that Fay “jumped in front of the vehicle and would not let him leave.”

Fay pounded the hood of the truck with her fists and yelled at Mathis, Banta told police, and he attempted to drive around her. She told police she did not see the truck strike Fay.

Two other witnesses also told police that Fay angrily confronted Mathis in the club, and one of them said he saw Mathis trying to back up to get around Fay in the parking lot. The witnesses also did not see Fay get hit by the truck, police said.