UPDATE: Wilmington hit-and-run

A Los Angeles police detective's voice cracked with emotion Wednesday as he listed the injuries a teenage girl suffered from a hit-and-run collision in Wilmington.

Kelsey Fukuda, now 14, is paralyzed on her right side, has very little movement on her left, can't talk and opens her eyes occasionally - although there's no indication she recognizes anyone, testified Detective Charles Martin, of the South Traffic Division.

During a preliminary hearing for Ricardo Tomas Guevara, 19, of Wilmington, Martin said Kelsey's skull was shattered when she and a friend were struck April 9 as they walked in the crosswalk at Pacific Coast Highway and Wilmington Avenue.

Following the hearing, Long Beach Superior Court Judge Jesse Rodriguez determined that Guevara should stand trial for one count of leaving the scene of an accident.

If convicted at trial, Guevara faces up to four years in state prison, according to Deputy District Attorney Steven Chamberlin.

He returns to court July 16.

Using crutches to walk into the courtroom, Elizabeth Salas, 14, said she doesn't remember being hit.

Her right leg in a cast to her knee, Elizabeth's voice was very soft as she testified about her broken leg and scraped head.

Jackie Block testified that she was stopped at the crosswalk and had just watched a group of about 20 or 30 middle-school-aged children pass by when she heard a screech.

Block looked in her rearview mirror and saw a black car speeding toward her, then swerving into the lane on her right before hitting the two girls and driving off.

Block, a registered nurse, said she got out to check on the girls. She said it was obvious Elizabeth's leg was broken, and she was moaning. Kelsey was unconscious.

Alex Hernandez said he saw the black car when he was stopped at a different intersection a block away, where it also sped by him and through a crosswalk. The children in the crosswalk saw him coming and stopped as he drove by, Hernandez said.

He watched the car hit the girls and speed off - and he followed. When he caught up to him, other witnesses had already stopped him, Hernandez said.

Hernandez identified Guevara, who is out of jail on $50,000 bail, as the driver.

Officer Constance Free said she interviewed Guevara at the Harbor Division station about 4:30 p.m. that day - a little more than an hour after the collision.

Guevara told her he was driving about 45 to 50 mph, even though the speed limit was 25 mph when children were present, Free said.

Guevara said he was changing lanes to get around a bus when he hit the girls. He said he knew he clipped one girl's legs and saw the other hit the windshield, Free testified.

"From there, he got scared and drove to his sister's residence," Free said.

Guevara's attorney, Carl Kandel, asked the officer if his client was agitated, was remorseful or intoxicated.

He was none of those things, Free said.

Martin said that Kelsey, who was an eighth-grader at Wilmington Middle School, received traumatic brain injury and stayed at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance until early June.

She's undergone numerous surgeries to repair her fractured skull, which the top portion had to be removed to relieve the pressure in her brain, Martin said he was told by her doctor at Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach, where Kelsey is now.

She's had some complications, including high blood pressure and seizures, Martin said. She is expected to begin working soon with a therapist to re-learn speech.

"If she does talk at all, it will be somewhere far down the road," Martin added.

denise.nix@dailybreeze.com