Two Arrested in Fatal I-35E Hit-and-Run That Killed a 23-Year-Old Denton Man

A man is dead. Two people are out on bail. And the only reason anyone was arrested at all is because a camera caught one license plate, in the dark, two minutes after Matthew Ring was killed.

Ring, 23, of Denton died in a hit-and-run on northbound I-35E at Corinth Parkway in the early hours of June 23. Officers were called to the 4900 block of South Interstate 35E near the Bill Utter Ford dealership at about 2:50 a.m. Ring was deceased when officers arrived. It appears he was a pedestrian walking on the interstate, not a stranded motorist.

The driver did not stop.

Corinth Police arrested a woman and a man in connection with the crash. Stephenia Dion Cooper, 42, of Denton is alleged to have been driving the vehicle that struck Ring and fled. She and her boyfriend, 45-year-old Gerald Antonio Nolan of Denton, allegedly conspired to sell the suspect vehicle shortly after.

What cracked the case was a Flock license plate reader. While searching the Flock database for vehicles matching the suspect description, officers located an image of a black Lincoln MKZ captured one mile north of the crash location two minutes after the crash. Officers ran the plate, and the vehicle registration came back to Cooper. When detectives went to her address, the car was gone. A representative at the Wylie dealership where the Lincoln had been purchased told officers he remembered the buyers — because the same couple came back on June 26 to buy another vehicle. Both purchases were cash sales.

That tip led investigators to Copart vehicle auctions in Haslet. Officers found a Lincoln MKZ with front-end damage. The passenger side-view mirror housing was missing. There were also traces of human tissue and blood on the vehicle.

One plate. At night. Two minutes. That is the margin between a solved case and a cold one.

Cooper posted $110,000 bail and was released from Denton County Jail. Nolan posted $25,000 bail and was released the following day. Both are out. The investigation, as of the most recent reports, is ongoing.

If you drive I-35E between Flower Mound and Denton — and most of us do — this happened on a stretch you know. Corinth sits a few miles south of Denton, along I-35E. The northbound lanes reopened around 8 a.m. that morning, well after the commute had already backed up behind it.

Anyone with information can contact Officer Craig Barnhart at (940) 279-1514 or craig.barnhart@corinthtx.gov.