TRAYE-SHON WILLIAMS - 4 yo (2012) - / Convicted: Ricky R. Weeden Sr - Pagedale, MO

Chronic traffic offender sentenced in boy’s death

Posted 2:39 pm, June 17, 2014, by Associated Press





PAGEDALE, MO (AP) – A 56-year-old St. Louis County man with six drunken driving convictions and roughly 150 traffic-related arrests has been sentenced to five years in prison for a 2012 crash that killed a 4-year-old boy.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch  reports that Ricky R. Weeden Sr. pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter and leaving an accident scene in connection with the Pagedale crash that killed Traye-shon Williams and injured his 10-year-old brother.

Weeden was initially charged with second-degree murder but struck a plea deal with prosecutors. Investigators said there was no evidence of alcohol use.

Weeden served less than two years in prison for his DWI convictions despite state laws that spell out longer sentences for chronic offenders. His licene has been revoked since a 1983 crash that killed two people.


http://fox2now.com/2014/06/17/chronic-traffic-offender-sentenced-in-boys-death/

Man, 56, who has been arrested 150 times for his dangerous or drunken driving gets just five years for hit-and-run that killed a four-year-old boy

• Ricky R. Weeden Sr. has been arrested for drunken driving, reckless driving and driving without a license since his was revoked in 1993
  
• In 1983, he also killed 2 people and injured 2 others in a car accident
  
• In October 2012, he killed Traye-shon Williams and injured his older brother as they crossed the road before he fled the scene
  
• But witnesses refused to testify and his defense argued the wet road could have contributed to the crash - and prosecutors struck a plea deal
  

By Lydia Warren
Published: 10:26 EST, 18 June 2014  |  Updated: 10:29 EST, 18 June 2014



Locked up: Ricky R. Weeden has been sentenced to five years behind bars for a 2012 hit-and-run

A man who has been arrested 150 times for driving violations has been sentenced to just five years in prison for a hit-and-run that killed a four-year-old boy.


Ricky R. Weeden Sr., 56, whose arrests include drunken driving, speeding, reckless driving and driving without a license since his was revoked in 1993, struck a plea deal in St Louis County, Missouri on Friday for his most recent charges - involuntary manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a fatal crash.


Weeden, who killed two other young people in a previous car crash in 1983, will receive credit for his 20 months already served.


The sentence relates to an October 2012 crash, when he hit and killed Traye-shon Williams and injured his brother Jay'Shard Conner, then 10, as they crossed the street in Pagedale.


After Weeden knocked them down in his GMC Sierra pickup, he drove off, leaving the younger boy to die at the scene. Jay'Shared suffered leg injuries.


Police later found Weeden's truck and tied it to the crime, and he was charged three days later.


He was initially charged with second-degree murder and assault, but prosecutors said there were problems building a case against him because one witness refused to testify and another had edibility problems because of a criminal history, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.


Authorities said there was also no evidence that Weeden was drunk at the time, and that wet road could have played a role in the crash.


Loss: Traye-shon Williams, pictured with his mother Felicia, died at the scene after he was hit by the car

But the boys' mother, Felicia Williams, responded on Tuesday: 'Someone is laying in the cemetery dead and they will never get up and come home again. That's enough evidence right there.'


Weeden's record includes at least 11 DWI arrests, including six that resulted in convictions.


In 1983, he ran a red light in St. Louis and hit another vehicle, killing Avance Wilson, 23, and Doris Ann Jones, 20, and injuring two others.
 
St. Louis police sought charges of manslaughter, assault and careless and imprudent driving against Weeden in the case - but he was only charged with careless and imprudent driving and was freed on $50 bail.


His license was revoked in April 1993 after he refused to take a breath test during a traffic stop and he never got it back, records show.


Missed: His mother said the five-year sentence was not enough seeing as he had been a serial offender

Despite this long rap sheet, he served fewer than two years in prison for his DWIs - an example of how offenders avoid tough penalties after deals made in municipal courts, the Post-Dispatch reported.


Williams, 32, said she believed the sentence was too lenient, especially considering his history.


'It's not just my baby,' she said. 'It's two other bodies.'


She demanded to know why his sentence wasn't harsher.


'Why is he so privileged?' she asked. 'To just receive five years, and you’ve been doing this since the ’80s, is crazy.'

This sentence is ridiculous.  How many people does he have to slaughter before they put him away for life?