Thread: 15-Year-Old Charged in Hit-and-Run Death

15-Year-Old Charged in Hit-and-Run Death

(WSB Radio) -- Police have arrested a 15-year-old Mexican national in the hit-and-run death of a 19-year-old woman.

The Athens Banner-Herald reports an Athens-Clarke County police officer spotted a pickup truck believed to have been involved in last Saturday's incident while on patrol Friday.

Nayasheika Cooper was killed while walking with her three-year-old son along Commerce Road. The boy survived.

Police say the male teen has been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, felony hit-and-run, DUI, underage consumption of alcohol and driving without a license.

No word yet on whether the teen will be charged as an adult or as a juvenile.
http://wsbradio.com/news/062108hitandrun.html

IT is so SICKENING to read story after story of death caused by illegals................. and the numbers just keep going higher, while our government tries to think of ways to keep them here.

WE ARE STILL LIVING IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!!!

This %^$# is happening EVERYDAY in this country and is buried in the back pages of newspapers ( if it's even covered at all ) across this country. Instead of protecting American citizens, our elected officials are busy meeting with and pandering to the illegals.

This crap has to stop!

Police: Teen driver said he hit tree
Truck's owner may be charged in hit-and-run
By Adam Thompson | adam.thompson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:12 AM on Sunday, June 22, 2008
A teenager charged in the hit-and-run killing of a 19-year-old Athens woman told his dad he smashed their neighbor's truck into a tree last Saturday night, police said.

He told the same story to the truck's owner, an adult friend who may be charged with loaning his pickup to the 15-year-old, according to police.

For nearly a week, police were looking for a damaged pickup, the vehicle that struck Nayasheika Cooper on June 14, as she walked along Commerce Road with her 3-year-old son.

There's no evidence the teen's father suspected his son was the driver in the hit-and-run, said Athens-Clarke police Sgt. Don Eckert.

The teen's father, his only relative in Athens, won't be charged with a crime, Eckert said.

"If there's (any other charge), it'll be on the owner," he said.

The teen, whom police and the Athens Banner-Herald aren't identifying because of his age, is held at a juvenile detention center on two counts of vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.

The teen admitted in an interview that he drank at a friend's house before the wreck, so police also charged him with driving under the influence and possession of alcohol by a minor, Eckert said.

Prosecutors soon will decide whether to seek adult charges against the 15-year-old, Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin said Saturday.

After he checks to see if the case allows for adult charges and reviews the teenager's background and other facts, Mauldin or an assistant DA may ask a Juvenile Court judge to move the case to Superior Court, Mauldin said.

Nothing short of adult charges for the teen would satisfy Nayasheika "Keisha" Cooper's parents, however.

"There's no way" the teen should be tried in juvenile court, the victim's mother, Tracey Cooper, said Saturday. "That's no justice for my family, my daughter, my 3-year-old grandson."

An officer told the family about the arrest Friday evening, but the news was only somewhat comforting, Tracey Cooper said.

She had just returned from her daughter's funeral when the officer came to their house off of four-lane Commerce Road, less than 200 yards from where Nayasheika Cooperwas killed while walking a short distance to a convenience store.

The toddler, Roderick Davenport Jr., saw a truck hit his mother around 9:30 p.m.

Though he's able to talk about what happened, "Nick Nack," as family calls the boy, also has been crying out for his mother, his grandmother said.

A Clarke County School District counselor is working with the boy. Meanwhile, relatives are leaning on each other and friends to get by, said Nayasheika's father, Walter Gant.

"We've got our grand-boy," Gant said. "We've got to be strong for him."

Police say the teenager they arrested, a Mexican national who was not enrolled in school in Athens, began driving last Saturday from his home off Oglethorpe Avenue.

"He wasn't going anywhere specifically," Eckert said.

Police still are investigating where the teen got alcohol that night and whether the truck's owner knowingly let a minor drive his truck, he said.

After nearly a week of searching by police, a patrol officer Friday afternoon spotted the dark gray Nissan pickup parked outside apartments at 830 Sunset Drive, according to police. Investigators matched debris found at the crime scene with the truck's broken headlight and grill, police said.

When the officer found the truck, its damaged front passenger-side fender was covered with a black trash bag, Eckert said.


Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 062208




http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/062 ... 2075.shtml

A 15-year old driver kills a 19-year old and her son?? What in the hell is wrong with this WHOLE story???

Police have arrested a 15-year-old Mexican national in the hit-and-run death of a 19-year-old woman.

"Mexican national". ANOTHER DESCRIPTION FOR "ILLEGAL ALIEN".

This is ANOTHER - I must have read over 1 thousand this year- illegal alien drunk who killed an American. This should have never happened IF the government did its job to protect Americans.

Bless that woman's family.

DA moves to try teen as adult in hit-run
Mother killed two weeks ago
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:40 AM on Thursday, June 26, 2008
Prosecutors want to try a 15-year-old boy as an adult for a hit-and-run collision that killed an Athens woman as she walked from her home to a nearby store with her toddler son.

Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin made the decision while preparing for a detention hearing held Sunday in Athens-Clarke Juvenile Court, he said.

Juvenile Court Judge James McDonald found sufficient evidence to continue to hold the boy on vehicular homicide charges at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, Mauldin said.

The teen, who authorities won't identify while his case is in the juvenile justice system, is accused of hitting and killing Nayasheika Cooper, 19, nearly two weeks ago while he was driving a borrowed pickup truck.

Mauldin was out of town Wednesday, but expected an assistant to file a motion in Juvenile Court to transfer the case to Clarke County Superior Court.

Juvenile Court Associate Judge Robin Shearer did not return calls, nor did the Juvenile Court prosecutor or Mauldin's chief assistant.

On June 14, Cooper was walking with her 3-year-old son from their home on Commerce Road to a convenience store nearby when a pickup hit her from behind, police said.

Police spent nearly a week looking for a black or gray Nissan pickup with front-end damage, and an officer found the truck Friday at an apartment complex on Sunset Drive, near Bishop Park between Oglethorpe and Prince avenues.

Investigators matched debris found at the crime scene with the truck's broken headlight and grill, police said.

Police arrested the underage driver at the apartment complex and charged him as a juvenile with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident, DUI, possession of alcohol by a minor and driving without a license.

Mauldin would not discuss why he wants to transfer the boy's case to adult court.

"That would require me to discuss the facts of the case, and that wouldn't be appropriate if it does go to Superior Court and potentially before a jury," Mauldin said.

A hearing on the prosecutor's motion to charge the teen as an adult had not been scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors want to charge the teen as an adult because he fled after he ran into Cooper, according to Athens-Clarke police Sgt. Don Eckert, a traffic unit supervisor who discussed the case with prosecutors.

A 14-year-old boy who wrecked a car on Jefferson Road last year, killing two of his passengers, was prosecuted in Juvenile Court. McDonald found the boy guilty in March of two counts of homicide by vehicle and sentenced him to two years at the Gainesville detention center.

Police continue to investigate whether to charge the owner of the pickup that hit Cooper, Eckert said.

"We're still trying to find out how he came to be in possession of the truck, whether it was with or without (the owner's) permission," he said.



Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 062608


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