Driver Who Hit Young Girls May Have Been Texting: SDPD

A woman implicated in a crash that killed a young girl and seriously injured her friend in Tierrasanta might have been texting just before the crash, police said in court Wednesday.

A judge decided that Julianne Little, 30, should be bound over for trial on manslaughter and hit and run charges in connection to the February crash.

Little told investigators that she fell asleep at the wheel on Feb. 20 when her vehicle hit two girls, 10-year-old Raquel Rosete and 12-year-old Mekayla Lee. The impact seriously injured both girls and Rosete later died.

San Diego police said Little swerved off the road and hit the girls as they were walking along the sidewalk at about 6 p.m. in the area of Santo Road near Shields Street.

In court on Wednesday, San Diego police Officer Jason Costanza said he noticed an outgoing phone call and text from Little's phone at the time of the accident.

"It said, 'I'm going to miss you, my friend,'" Costanza said.

Further details about the phone activity and the connection to the case were not revealed in court. However, a prosecutor told NBC 7 that Little is being investigated for gross negligence.

She was initially arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but now police said there is no evidence of impairment.

Little initially fled the scene; however, after driving home, police said, Little returned to the scene with her father.

The defendant appeared to struggle with her emotions in court at times when witnesses spoke about the crash.

Lee, the living victim, testified in the preliminary hearing about what she remembered. She wore a shirt in Rosete's honor.

"I was like in a bush, and I remember seeing bright lights and a woman and a man, I guess with the ambulance," she said, noting she didn't remember the impact.

Little faces charges of vehicular manslaughter and hit and run; investigators say she drove along the sidewalk for at least 100 feet before striking the girls.

As a defense, her attorney has told NBC 7 that his client was stressed over a stalker, causing her to lose sleep.