The Staten Island woman accused of striking a 14-year-old pedestrian in Brooklyn and then driving away died just weeks later from what friends described as a brain disorder that caused the bizarre, Alzheimer’s-like behavior, according to a report.
Julia Litmonovich, 49, died May 5 after she was arrested for barreling into Xin Yi Wang on March 27 as the teen was crossing 47th Street at Ninth Avenue in Borough Park, longtime friend Kimberly Perricone told SILive.com, describing the strange behavior as being similar to the way someone with Alzheimer’s disease might act.
Xin Yi WangGabriella Bass“If you watch, when she’s getting taken from her house to a cop car, her face is blank,” Perricone said. “You can see in her eyes. Like there’s no one there.”
Perricone did not identify a specific illness or condition.
Friends and family said their final goodbyes on Friday, when Litmanovich was laid to rest following a Friday morning service at Saint Mark Church in Sheepshead Bay, according to English Bros Funeral Home’s website.
Litmanovich was charged on April 10 with leaving the scene of an accident with an injury, reckless endangerment, assault, reckless driving, failure to yield to a pedestrian, failure to exercise due care and speeding, police said.
Friends told the local news outlet that Litmanovich’s condition worsened following the incident, and that they believed her disorder played a role in her behavior during and after the crash.
In April, she allegedly told the arresting officers: “I left because, come on, I hit a little girl, I’m going to jail,” Assistant District Attorney Tziyonah Langsam said during Litmanovich’s arraignment. “What is the big deal? It was an accident.”
The Staten Island woman was hospitalized twice while in law enforcement custody for the arrest — once when she was first picked up by cops, and again after her arraignment.
