Ben Hur hit-and-run driver did not know for hours he was responsible, attorney says

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The attorney for Walter Andrew Brister IV, the Louisiana Tech student who hit and killed a man on Ben Hur Road last Saturday, said his client did not realize he was the person responsible until the following morning.

Attorney John McLindon says he notified authorities “within hours” of the accident about his client’s involvement in the death of 44-year-old pedestrian Jude Jarreau. He says all parties agreed that Brister would wait to turn himself in on Wednesday, mainly because Monday was a holiday and the courts would be closed.

Brister, the 21-year-old son of former NFL quarterback “Bubby” Brister, was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Wednesday on one count of felony hit-and-run. The charge carries a maximum of ten years in prison.

He posted bond and was released from parish prison just before 7 p.m. Wednesday. His mug shot could not be released by the parish prison because of a new state law that prohibits the release of mug shots for charges deemed to be “non-violent”.

Brister was driving a Range Rover that hit Jarreau as the pedestrian was trying to cross Ben Hur Road near Burbank Drive late Saturday night, October 8. Jarreau was an avid LSU fan and father of two.

McLindon says he is legally barred from commenting about specific evidence in the case at this juncture. Because of that, he declined to say where Brister had been prior to the incident and whether or not he had been drinking.

McLindon says his client and family are heartbroken about what happened. “I’ve spent a lot of time with the Brister family and that’s been very emotional,” McLindon said. “Their thoughts and prayers go out to the Jarreau family. We all feel terrible about this. It’s a very tragic situation.”

Funeral services for Jarreau are scheduled for Thursday, October 13 in Donaldsonville.

Bond was set at $10,000, according to jail officials.

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