HARRISON TOWNSHIP — A woman is speaking out for the first time since a man hit her with his car and left her for dead.
As reported on News Center 7 at 11, On April 6, 2023, around 11:30 p.m. deputies were called to a hit and run in the area of North Main Street and Santa Clara Avenue.
They found I’Sice Thomas critically injured and the car that hit her nowhere to be found.
The suspect, identified only recently as Joseph Ferguson II, has pleaded guilty to felony counts of vehicular assault and failure to stop after an accident concerning the crash.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man pleads guilty in connection to Dayton hit-and-run that left teen in critical condition
Nearly a year later Thomas is out of the hospital but still working to recover from the traumatic crash.
She said she doesn’t remember being hit by the car, only waking up confused.
“I knew something was bad ... I was like ‘Why am I in the hospital?’” Thomas said.
She spoke about her months in the hospital.
“Having three surgeries — brain surgeries — to having 18 staples in your head, getting shots in your stomach, getting a feeding tube, it was a lot for me,” she said.
Thomas spent 90 days in the hospital, slowly recovering.
“Having nothing else to do but just sit there and think about what you went through,” she said. “I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.”
She said she is still working to come to terms with what happened to her.
>> RELATED: ‘She doesn’t deserve any of this;’ Mother speaks out as daughter recovers from Dayton hit-and-run
“I can’t sleep ... I’d be staying up to like 6 a.m., just up thinking,” she said.
She can have some peace knowing the man who did this to her has been caught.
“I was so happy because he needs to pay,” Thomas said.
While she is doing better and can walk now, she knows her life will never be the same.
“I freak out... I’d be forgetting stuff a lot, I’m always just so drained,” she said.
Ferguson is set to be sentenced next month, Thomas hopes he gets at least 10 years in prison.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
©2024 Cox Media Group
