A South Bay woman who publicly pleaded for help finding the driver responsible for a deadly hit-and-run in San Jose has now been arrested in the case, police said.

Officers were called shortly before 6:30 p.m. Saturday to the 4900 block of McCoy Avenue, where they found a man lying in the eastbound lane with critical injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the San Jose Police Department.

Investigators later determined the man, identified by family as 29-year-old Loren Badillo, had been a passenger in a black 2018 Chevrolet Volt traveling eastbound when he jumped out of the car and suffered fatal injuries.

“While the vehicle was traveling eastbound on McCoy Avenue, the adult male passenger exited the vehicle, resulting in significant trauma,” police said. “The female driver drove off and fled the scene prior to police arrival.”

On Monday, detectives arrested Marianna Belmares, Badillo’s roommate, on suspicion of felony hit-and-run. Police said Belmares was driving the Chevrolet Volt at the time of the incident.

Before her arrest, Belmares had appeared on NBC Bay Area tearfully asking the public for help finding the driver responsible for Badillo’s death.

“He had a way of bringing light into every room,” Belmares said in that interview. “He always made you feel like you were welcome and accepted.”

Badillo’s mother, Tammie Conti, said the arrest was shocking.

“I truly can’t believe that somebody has the lack of human decency to get on TV and say how much they love somebody, produce fake tears and yet this is the same person that could let someone lay on the side of the street while they drove away,” Conti told the station Wednesday. “We are devastated to learn it was his roommate. We want justice for Loren.”

Badillo, a Livermore native, was a musician and songwriter who had recently started a job in artificial intelligence and was planning to visit his mother in Idaho for Christmas. His family plans to hold a vigil Friday.

This article originally published at Roommate who pleaded for help arrested in deadly San Jose hit-and-run.