CHELSEA — A 65-year-old Vershire woman has been criminally charged in connection with the death of an 82-year-old pedestrian, who she struck with her car in Chelsea four months ago and subsequently died from his injuries, according to police.

Donna Kendall, of Chamberlain Hill Road, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident with death resulting, gross negligent operation with death resulting and providing false information to police.

She was driving the car that allegedly struck Robert “Bobby” Hutchinson in Chelsea on the evening of Nov. 7, 2024, according a news release from Windsor County Sheriff’s Department. Kendall is cited to appear in Orange County Superior Court on April 23.

Hutchinson, a handyman who was frequently observed walking with the assistance of a walker around Chelsea, succumbed to his injuries at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center 10 days after he was hit.

Deputies from the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department, which provides police coverage in Chelsea, were dispatched to Route 113 near Court Street at around 6 p.m. on Nov. 7 to a report of a pedestrian being struck by a motor vehicle.

“The operator of the motor vehicle departed the scene before police arrived” but “she was later positively identified by a bystander at the scene,” according to Friday’s news release.

Hutchinson, suffering from severe injuries, was transported to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon and about four days later went into hospice at the Jack Byrne Center, where he died on Nov. 17.

A four-month investigation led to the “identification and arrest” of Kendall, the news release said.

On Friday, Kendall, reached by phone at home, said she was bewildered by the charges and disputed the implication that she was a hit-and-run driver.

Instead, Kendall said, she stopped her vehicle, attempted to offer assistance to Hutchinson and had left the scene before police arrived after a firefighter attending to Hutchinson at the scene told her it was OK to leave.

Kendall said she was driving home from work at Clara Martin Center in Randolph and passing through the center of Chelsea near the green when she noticed a “blur” outside the passenger side window of her red 2002 Toyota Celica.

“I was probably going max 30 miles-per-hour. I’m not a speeder,” she said, adding that it was “getting dark and hard to see a little bit.”

“I didn’t know what (the blur) was but something wasn’t right,” Kendall said, noting she didn’t remember if she heard anything but nonetheless pulled over to the side of the road and got out of her vehicle.

Kendall said she “walked back” and saw a man laying on the white line of the road.

“I said, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. Are you all right? Are you hurt?’ ” Kendall said.

Hutchinson “kept saying ‘I fell, I fell,’ ” Kendall recounted.

Kendall said Hutchinson told her he was OK and wanted to be reunited with his walker.

She knocked on a nearby resident’s door for assistance. A woman responded and came out.

After Kendall and the nearby resident were unable to get Hutchinson back up to his walker, the woman called 911 for emergency help. Within a few minutes a responder from the Chelsea Fire Department showed up and advised them not to move Hutchinson.

Because there was not a lot of room for vehicles that would be arriving at the scene and she did not want to obstruct the response, Kendall said she asked the first responder if it was OK to leave.

“I stopped. I assisted. I asked the fire guy if I could go home … he said ‘yes,’ ” maintained Kendall, although she said the responder wrote in his incident report that he “neither said I could or said I couldn’t” leave the scene.

“It was just a freak accident, but, yes, I did leave before the cops came,” Kendall said on Friday.

Kendall said she only realized that her car had stuck Hutchinson when police showed up to question her and pointed out that her passenger’s side rear view mirror was broken.

“That’s when I got upset and realized something (was wrong); there was contact,” Kendall said.

Kendall, who lives with her son, his girlfriend and their “2-year-old baby,” said she is now scared she will lose her job at Clara Martin where she has worked for nearly 12 years as a “recovery specialist,” assisting program residents in making sure they are taking their medications and giving them rides to places they need to be.

Kendall said the implication of the charges that she is a hit-and-run driver is not who she is.

“I’m a helper, not a hurter,” she said on Friday afternoon, choking back tears.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.