By PAULA ANN MITCHELL
Freeman staff
pmitchell@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/anchoratfreeman

SHAWANGUNK, N.Y. — State police have arrested a  Wallkill man in connection with a hit-and-run accident that killed a Shawangunk bicyclist Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Marcellinno Ruiz, 67,  was arrested by state police at Highland and charged with leaving the scene of an incident that results in death, a felony.

The bicyclist, Keith Marroon, 60, of 46 Sherwood Drive, was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh.

Police said the accident happened on Sunday at 12:14 p.m. on Bates Lane in the town of Shawngunk.

Ruiz, who was driving a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado and pulling a utility trailer, was traveling west on Bates Lane when the wheel well struck Marroon, who was riding his bike in an easterly direction, said acting state police Senior Investigator Diana Benoit.

“He obviously had fatal injuries, and he succumbed to them,” she said of the bicyclist.

Marroon, who was a laboratory technician at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, was found on the roadway, Benoit said. He was wearing a helmet.

Benoit said Ruiz knew he hit him because he got out and looked at him.

“There were no witnesses other than perpetrator himself,” she said.

State police found Ruiz many hours later Sunday afternoon in the Middletown area, Benoit said. Continued...

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Alcohol did not appear to be a factor, but the investigation is continuing, she said.

Benoit said Marroon’s wife had told police that her husband often biked for recreation.

The Gridley-Horan Funeral Home on Orchard Street in Walden is handling the arrangements.

Ruiz, meanwhile, is being held at the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash or $500,000 secured bond.

Editor's note: This story was modified 12:51 PM 05-22-12 to correct the age of the victim in the headline.

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