A 32-year-old Anchorage delivery driver has been arrested and arraigned over a fatal hit-and-run that killed a 42-year-old pedestrian before dawn on Monday, in a case that has drawn national attention because the accused is the son of two well-known Hollywood actors — and because the man he is accused of leaving behind was the ninth pedestrian killed on Anchorage roads this year.
Source: Anchorage Police Department
The Anchorage Police Department (APD) said patrol officers and medics from the Anchorage Fire Department responded at about 5:48 a.m. on Monday, November 9, 2026, to the intersection of Airport Heights Drive and DeBarr Road in east Anchorage, where they found an unresponsive adult man. He was identified as Carl Simmonds, 42, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The department's preliminary investigation indicates Simmonds, who was on foot, had been struck by a vehicle that then fled the scene.
Source: Anchorage Police Department
The arrest: a white Tahoe, surveillance video and a phone call
By the end of the same day, police had located the suspect vehicle — a Chevrolet Tahoe — and arrested its driver, Jack Sabato, 32, APD said in an updated release. He was remanded to the Anchorage Correctional Complex on two charges: leaving the scene of an accident without assisting the injured, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death. The APD case number is 26-29325.
Source: Anchorage Police Department
Charging documents cited by Alaska's News Source (KTUU) place the collision at about 5:35 a.m. near the Airport Heights Drive and DeBarr Road intersection and identify the vehicle as a white Chevrolet Tahoe. Investigators obtained surveillance footage of the collision and used the Tahoe's registration to trace it, locating the vehicle at Sabato's workplace at about 12:45 p.m., according to reporting on the charging documents. Sabato later contacted police himself — at about 2:46 p.m., according to the documents — and told officers he had hit something that suddenly appeared in the road while he was out doing late-night food-delivery driving.
Source: Alaska's News Source (KTUU) via Gray News
Sabato is charged with leaving the scene, not with deliberately striking Simmonds. The two counts filed are leaving the scene of an accident without assisting the injured and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death. He is presumed innocent unless and until a court finds him guilty.
Arraignment: $5,000 bail and a no-driving order
Sabato was arraigned on Tuesday afternoon, November 10, at the Anchorage Jail Courtroom, KTUU reported. A judge set bail at $5,000, issued a no-driving order, and warned of an additional $5,000 penalty if he fails to appear at future court dates. Reports from the court appearance said Sabato described delivery driving as his work that night; the charging documents describe late-night food-delivery runs in the hours before the crash.
Source: Alaska's News Source (KTUU)
Who the accused is
KTUU identified Sabato as the son of Antonio Sabato Jr., the model and actor known for General Hospital, and Virginia Madsen, the actress known for Candyman and for her Academy Award-nominated role in Sideways. Police and court reporting have focused on the driving and the decision to leave the scene, and neither parent has been accused of any involvement in the case.
Background: a dark November morning on a major east Anchorage road
DeBarr Road is one of east Anchorage's main traffic corridors, and Airport Heights Drive serves the neighbourhood of the same name near Alaska Regional Hospital. The collision happened at about 5:35 a.m. — well before sunrise on a November morning in Anchorage — a time of year when pedestrians and drivers share long hours of darkness across the city. According to KTUU's count, Simmonds was the ninth pedestrian hit and killed by a vehicle in Anchorage this year, a toll that has kept road safety for people on foot at the centre of local debate.
What happens next
The investigation remains open. APD is asking anyone with surveillance footage of the area, or other information about the investigation who has not yet spoken to police, to call APD Dispatch at 3-1-1 (option #1) or 907-786-8900 (option #0), quoting case 26-29325. Sabato's case now moves through the Anchorage courts under the bail and no-driving conditions set at his arraignment; further hearings will decide how the two leaving-the-scene charges proceed. No charge alleging that the collision itself was deliberate has been filed.
For Punjabi and other immigrant families in the United States who earn their living on the road — trucking, delivery and gig driving included — the case is a stark reminder of the legal line that matters most after any collision: stop, call for help and stay. In Alaska, as in every state, leaving the scene of a crash involving injury or death is itself a serious criminal charge, separate from how the crash happened.