Mom convicted in son’s jaywalking death: ‘This will never end for me’
By Liz Goodwin
National Affairs Reporter
A Marietta, Ga., mom who was convicted of jaywalking after her 4-year-old son was run over and killed in a hit-and-run said on the Today Show that the worst part of going to jail would be the separation from her two remaining kids.
Raquel Nelson was convicted of homicide by vehicle and reckless conduct by a jury and faces sentencing tomorrow. She can receive up to a three-year jail sentence, six times the stretch that Jerry Guy--who admitted to drinking before running over Nelson's son, A.J.--served.
"I think to come after me so much harder than they did him is a slap in the face because this will never end for me," she said. "It's three years away from the two that I have left."
Nelson also said that the jury had "never been in my shoes," because each of them answered that they had never taken public transportation before.
Nelson, who doesn't have a car, was three-tenths of a mile away from the nearest crosswalk when her bus dropped her off at the stop across the street from her apartment with her three children. She decided to cross with her kids rather than remain outside any later at night, she said. (You can read more about her case here.)
"We are just hoping as a family that [the judge] is compassionate and lets my niece remain with her other children," Nelson's aunt Loretta Williams said.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...151356884.html
The video explains everything in more detail, but here it is in a nuts :
Partially blind man with two previous hit and run convictions hits entire family while speeding at night under the influence of alcohol and painkillers and kills one child, then spends six months in jail. Now they're considering putting the mother in jail for up to three years because she didn't want to walk over half a mile in the dark with three small children and jaywalked instead.
This is a hard one. I can see both sides of the story. Yeah it's half a mile (or 3/10 of a mile) but when it comes to a child's safety you gotta do what you gotta do. If it's already dark out then maybe (definately) the crosswalk would have been safer.
On the other hand if the guy wasn't so messed up then maybe he would have had a better reaction time.
Either way I feel like they are both equally at fault. 10 years for both
.....but yet a baby killer is free in florida.
I have a problem convicting her because the police aren't enforcing the laws. If they made it a point to give people tickets for jaywalking, it would happen far less often. As it stands, very few people don't jaywalk.
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 07-25-2011 at 03:32 PM.
Damn that's horrible. I actually don't have a big problem with her conviction. We'll see what the sentence is tomorrow. 3 years (the max) is too much for someone going through that much, but I do agree that she shoulders some blame here. A third of a mile is no short stretch with kids in tow but (and I'll freely admit that hindsight's 20/20) my first thought when I heard the details was back when I was a kid. I can't think of any time my mom had three of us walking with her when it was quick and orderly enough that I'd chance crossing a street at night without a signal. In the event that it makes any difference, I have had to rely on public transportation. I've jaywalked a bit too, which may be what upsets me the most. I was a college kid, I stand six foot and was in pretty good shape. In broad daylight I could cross a street quickly at a jog and be highly visible to any motorist. A small child at night can't do either and bad neighborhood or not that's very poor judgement on that mother's part.
If the details weren't what they are on the driver I might actually have some sympathy for him. Anyone I know who has driven long enough in Houston has had to stomp on the brakes to keep from hitting some one jay walking in the dark. All good people, all good drivers, any of which could have been involved in a tragic accident through little to no fault of their own. But the details are what they are, and that guy should be going away for a long, long time.
Life's lessons are hard sometimes. When it is normal to jaywalk, such occurrences will happen. Isn't the loss of her child enough punishment? Think she will ever be so careless again?
The lesson is learned. Why put a farther burden on the tax payer legal system, especially during such times.
It could be argued that law enforcement shares the guilt. Laws are there for a reason and should be enforced. If the law no longer applies, it should be removed from the books. That said, as long as the police do not enforce the laws, people will violate them. To enforce it in the aftermath just isn't right.
Marrietta, GA? That's in Cobb county Georgia, I wouldn't be surprised if the jury wore klansmen robes during the trial. She's screwed.
I actually agree WC and I hope that the judge uses your line of thinking in the sentencing. Losing a child should be punishment enough. I'd sleep just fine if she never saw the inside of a jail cell for this. However as regards the law and the situation at hand her decisions are partly to blame for the events that occurred.
It would only be argued by you.
par for the course.
That man, Jerry Guy, admitted he had been drinking and taking prescribed painkillers the night of the accident, and had been convicted in two earlier hit-and-runs. He served six months in jail for the crime.
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What political ass s wrote/write the sentencing laws?
Alcohol and pharma lobbying committees?
It's unfortunate how rarely "law" and "justice" cross paths. Common sense tells us that this asshole wouldn't have stopped at the crosswalk either and the boy would still be dead, but unfortunately that can't be taken into consideration, as law and common sense also rarely intersect.
wowThat man, Jerry Guy, admitted he had been drinking and taking prescribed painkillers the night of the accident, and had been convicted in two earlier hit-and-runs. He served six months in jail for the crime.
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What political ass s wrote/write the sentencing laws?
Alcohol and pharma lobbying committees?
Absolutely. I say she is at fault. However, for me it goes back to this. How many years have you see people jaywalk, and never get stopped or ticketed? Technically, it's still illegal. But people treat jaywalking as if it were legal. If it were a legal act, would this be happening to her?
MARIETTA, GA (AP) -
A woman whose 4-year-old son was struck by a van and killed while the family was attempting to cross a busy Cobb County street was sentenced to 12 months probation.
Raquel Nelson was sentenced in Cobb County Superior Court on Tuesday on a vehicular homicide charge.
An attorney for the 30-year-old woman says she and her children were crossing a street in April after getting off a bus, three-tenths of a mile from a crosswalk. The attorney says Nelson's daughter and son bolted from a median.
They were struck by a van, slightly injuring Nelson and her daughter but killing her son.
The driver, Jerry Guy, pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and served a six-month sentence.
I don't think I've ever seen a cop in the vicinity of me or anyone I ever saw jaywalk. I know I usually take a look around before I did anything. If had been busted I'd like to think I would have taken the ticket without too much complaint. It is illegal afterall. The problem is that if you're really serious about stamping that out then that would be the thing that would create a bigger burden on the system. You'd need way more police on the streets to make that work. I'm sure that there are cops who see it happen and don't want to bother with the paperwork of a citation and they are part of the problem but in my experience it's a lack of presence not a lack of vigilance that's the issue.
And yes, even if jaywalking were 100% legal, I would still believe that what she did cons uted "reckless conduct". It's possible to do perfectly legal things in a manner dangerous enough to yourself or others that it becomes illegal. I think that trying to cross a city street at night with two young children in tow without using a crosswalk would qualify.
With all that said, I'm really glad there was no jail time in the sentence. And I still grit my teeth every time I see that the piece of behind the wheel only got six months.
jaywalking while black is a much more serious offense than jaywalking while white
I laughed a little at this because I've heard a lot of race baiting on the topic - "This is only happening to her because she is black!" It amuses me how they all conveniently ignore the fact that the asshole who hit the kid is also African-American and he got away practically scot-free.
Then why do I get those "You betta wait for me" looks while they slowly cross the street? If they thought they were going to get in trouble they would move faster.
Damn...
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