(MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, Ala.) Sept. 28 - Alabama State Troopers have identified the 22-year-old man killed when a street sign went through his car windshield as Jose Galiana.
Troopers say John Hadley,19. took the sign pole from a spot in front of his house and threw it like a spear at the mustang traveling north on County Road 55. The car crashed in front of Magnolia Elementary School. Troopers say the men were strangers, and the tragic act was random. But, that doesn't stop the theories around the suspect's neighborhood.
"I guess he was at a party and there was an altercation," Jack Smith says. He says he heard the argument was over a girl and the driver followed Hadley home. "They said he was in excess of 100 miles an hour and he swerved at the guy and the guy threw the pole."
Authorities say they don't think the two were at a party together, and there's no evidence the driver was speeding. However, there is evidence Hadley's father, Albert, wasn't telling the whole story. In a 911 call, the district attorney says Albert's wife, at his direction, reported a crash, but made no mention of their son or the pole.
"I'd have done the same thing, you know," Smith says. "I'd have tried to help my son for something like that. That's just a terrible thing because I'm sure his son didn't intentionally kill the guy."
Both father and son are bonded out of jail. Nobody answered the door at the home Monday. They are most likely laying low after a tragic and bizarre event.
"The other guy's dead and that's terrible, dad's in trouble. There ain't a good side to it, it's just sad," John Miller says.
State Troopers believe Galiana was an illegal immigrant from Mexico who may have been living in Robertsdale.
