Hit-and-run motorist turns himself in two years after killing truck driver

A hit-and-run motorist has turned himself in nearly two years after a fatal accident that killed a truck driver. 

James A. Puryear turned himself in to law enforcement on Thursday morning, October 30th in Prince William County, Virginia, nearly two years after an accident that occurred on November 19th, 2023. 

According to FFX Now, “the crash occurred at 5:05 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2023, when a 2005 Infiniti G35 sideswiped a 2015 Freightliner Cascadia tractor trailer,” reported the Virginia State Police. “The tractor trailer then went off of the left side of the interstate and struck a guardrail and a support column. The driver of the Infiniti then fled the scene.”

The 31-year-old truck driver, Trenton Schnakenberg, was killed in the crash. Puryear initially gave his information to police for a crash report, but eventually fled, leaving Schnakenberg’s family without answers or justice for the fatal crash. 

“How would it take over a year to track somebody down for this when you had their name and address from the beginning?” Schnakenberg’s Aunt said in a news report about a year after the accident. “It’s very frustrating and disheartening, and it’s hard.”

Puryear is being held at the Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center. He is charged with involuntary manslaughter, possession with the intent to manufacture or sell a Schedule I/II substance, and felony hit and run resulting in injury or death.