A Pierceton man will serve one year in jail for his role in helping destroy evidence after a fatal hit-and- run crash in 2019.
Mark Edward Blankenship, 50, of 509 W. Elm St., Pierceton, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in the Kosciusko County Jail, with one year executed and 1-1/2 years to be served on formal probation. He was convicted of a Level 6 obstruction of justice charge; a Level 4 felony arson charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
The case stems from an April 7, 2019, call police received about a fully-engulfed vehicle fire in Milford.
That vehicle belonged to Blake Dull, 26, formerly of 407 W. Elm St., Pierceton. Dull told police he burned the vehicle because he owed money on it and couldn’t afford the payments, according to court papers.
However, police then learned that Blankenship had information regarding a crash from earlier that day in which a pedestrian died after being hit by a car.
The pedestrian was Matthew Hoshal, 27, of Warsaw, and he was taken to Fort Wayne Lutheran Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Blankenship told police he met with Dull and that Dull told him he hit a pedestrian on Lake Street and thought he killed the pedestrian.
Blankenship said to help Dull cover up the evidence from the crash, he helped him light the car on fire by providing diesel fuel then giving him a ride back to a Pierceton home.
Dull was sentenced to eight years in the Indiana Department of Corrections in April for a Level 4 felony arson conviction and a Level 5 leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death conviction, according to court records.
