In April 2009, Ashleigh Jackson was hit by a silver BMW and seriously injured in a hit and run collision on Saratoga Los Gatos Road here in the Bay Area. One year later, police arrested Robert Schiro for the crime. Schiro at the time had a suspended license for previous DUI convictions, and it’s thought Schiro was driving drunk when he nearly killed Jackson. I’ve wondered since then how they caught the guy.
Now we know. It turns out that everybody who knew Mr Schiro knew of his crime. It was an open secret among his office staff. Then he hired Kay Blanset, a grandmother from Gilroy, as an office assistant. Kay Blanset hates drunk drivers, because she lost a teenage grandson to a drunk driver in 2002.
When Blanset heard about Schiro’s secret, she urged her co-workers to come clean and tell the police. Those cowards refused, but Blanset talked with the police, got the evidence they asked for, then quit her job.
Three cheers for Ms Blanset from Gilroy.
Schiro pled guilty last week to felony hit-and-run, and to misdemeanor charges of driving with a suspended license and another hit-and-run charge from hitting another cyclist, David Nelson, who was not seriously injured. The Santa Clara prosecutor expects Schiro will be sentenced to a year, with his sentence likely served under house arrest given his age.
More in the Mercury News: Undercover grandma nailed hit-and-run driver.
See also:
- Robert Paul Schiro arrested for cyclist hit and run
- Carlos my hero!
- GoPro HERO Cam pro tip
- Cycle Hero winners






