UPDATE: The hearing was continued until next year.
A 24-year-old man accused as being behind the wheel in a hit-and-run that killed a young girl in the city's Overbrook neighborhood earlier this year will be in court Wednesday.
Paul Woodlyn faces a preliminary hearing on homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter and deadly accident charges stemming from the death of 8-year-old Jaynna Powell. [[404031306, C]]
Jaynna's family planned to be in the Center City courtroom for Wednesday's hearing.
Jayanna was walking home from school with her siblings on 63rd Street and Lansdowne Avenue around 3:15 p.m. back on Nov. 18.
"We was just crossing the street just to get the bus," Jayanna's 12-year-old brother Hassan Cox said.
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Hassan said he was holding his sister's hand as they crossed 63rd Street when they were struck by a driver speeding through the intersection trying to catch a yellow light. The force of the impact was so strong that the girl was thrown 20 feet, her family said. A witness said the girl's backpack also tore open, splaying paper and books all over the street.
Hassan was knocked into a nearby car, the family said. Jayanna was rushed to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with serious injuries. She died a short time later.
Police said the hit-and-run vehicle was a gray or silver Nissan Altima or Maxima with damage to the headlights and grill. Eventually a car matching that description turned up a suburban body shop and police would go on to charge Woodlyn on Dec. 1.
"We were able to match up some of the auto parts to that particular car, it's absolutely the car," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.
Woodlyn has remained behind bars, unable to post $500,000 bail, said court records.
