A driver who fatally struck an 18-year-old college student in La Mesa, then fled and was arrested more than a month later, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony count of hit-and-run causing death.
Scott Douglas Satterfield, 62, of Spring Valley, admitted to hitting Jok Joseph Jok with a pickup on Feb. 27, 2021. The victim was found shortly after 9 p.m. lying on the eastern edge of the roadway on Bancroft Drive, just south of Golondrina Drive, according to the La Mesa Police Department.
He died in a hospital about a week later. Investigators determined that Satterfield was the hit-and-run driver via surveillance video that captured images of his white Ford F-150 in the area at the time of the traffic fatality, according to police.
At Satterfield's arraignment, Deputy District Attorney David Vallero said the defendant's vehicle was located on March 16 with a cracked windshield and other damage consistent with striking a person.
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Satterfield was arrested April 7 at an unidentified motel in Mission Valley, La Mesa police said. He's due back in court in April for a sentencing hearing.
According to an online obituary, Jok, the son of Sudanese immigrants, graduated from La Jolla Country Day School in 2020 and was attending UC Riverside at the time of his death in an accelerated bachelor's program that would have led to medical school, where he sought to specialize in neuropharmacology.
