A Tempe police report shows that the alleged driver of a hit-and-run accident that killed an ASU student was reportedly in a bar with a friend hours before the accident.
ASU graduate Mark Torre, who is facing charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, is suspected of being impaired when he struck freshman Jessica Woodin while she was crossing Apache Boulevard and McAllister Avenue, police officials said.
Torre’s black 2001 Ford Mustang was found abandoned a few miles from the accident, hours later.
Torre, accompanied by his lawyer, turned himself in a few days after the accident but did not answer any questions from police.
Torre and suspected front-seat passenger, Paul Nalbandian, worked for Phoenix law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey at the time of the accident.
Witnesses report they saw Torre at the nightclub Axis Radius in Scottsdale and at a Z-Tejas restaurant hours before the accident in August.
A bartender at Axis Radius said she remembered seeing two men seated at the bar matching the descriptions of Torre and Nalbandian, according to the police report.
She said the two men seemed “out of it” and asked if they could buy a bottle of gin.
The report reads: “ … she had told them that she hoped they weren’t driving and they mentioned they were lawyers.” The bartender also said the men told her they were not driving.
While at the bar, she reported, the men ordered an FIP or Fruit Infused Patrone. An FIP is a drink where a piece of fruit is soaked in an ounce of Patrone tequila for several days.
A manager at Z-Tejas said he remembered the two men coming to the restaurant because they arrived shortly before 1 a.m. and were the only people at the bar.
However, the report said the manager doesn’t think he could identify the men if he saw them again.
Torre is expected to appear in court in early November, Maricopa County Attorney spokesman William FitzGerald said.
Reach Kristin Koch at kristinrose79@asu.edu.
