Thread: IA Pleads Guilty to Hitting & Killing Georgia Mother

Teen guilty in fatal hit-and-run

By Allison Floyd | allison.floyd@onlineathens.com |
Story updated at 11:37 pm on 1/26/2009

A teen pleaded guilty Monday to hitting and killing a North Clarke County woman as she walked along Commerce Road with her 3-year-old son in June.

Fifteen-year-old Abel Gonzalez-Perez pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI and hit-and-run in the June death of 19-year-old Nayasheika "Keisha" Cooper, who died after being struck from behind while she walked with her son to get a drink.

Gonzalez-Perez, who was working illegally in the United States at the time of his arrest, accepted prosecutors' recommendation that he spend as many as eight years in prison and an additional seven on probation.

Superior Court Judge Steve Jones accepted the guilty plea Monday, but he is not bound by the sentencing recommendation and will hear from Cooper's family before sentencing Gonzalez-Perez sometime next month, he said.

Cooper was killed June 14 while walking on the shoulder of Commerce Road with her 3-year-old son, Roderick "Nick Nack" Davenport Jr. Nick Nack came running home alone, covered in mud and saying, "Mama's been hit - red truck, red truck," according to his grandmother.

His grandparents think their daughter pushed him out of the way when she saw the truck bearing down on them.

Police searched for the truck for nearly a week before they found it at an apartment complex off Sunset Drive in Western Clarke County.

Gonzalez-Perez told police he had borrowed the truck and was drinking at a friend's house before the crash.

Police first charged the 15-year-old as a juvenile, but a judge transferred the case to Superior Court and another judge denied bond, finding that Gonzalez-Perez posed a flight risk.

While District Attorney Ken Mauldin couldn't discuss details of the plea agreement, he pointed out that Gonzalez-Perez likely would have received a fraction of the sentence under juvenile court standards.

"(Superior Court proceedings) were more than appropriate under the circumstances. The available sentences in the juvenile system wouldn't appropriately reflect what happened here," Mauldin said Monday night.

In juvenile court, Gonzalez-Perez probably would have served two years in confinement, Mauldin said.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, January 27, 2009

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/012 ... 2167.shtml

Gonzalez-Perez, who was working illegally in the United States at the time of his arrest, accepted prosecutors' recommendation that he spend as many as eight years in prison and an additional seven on probation.

He's 15 and driving alone
He's drunk
He's illegal
And when and where is this probation to take effect? Mexico I hope!

Gonzalez-Perez told police he had borrowed the truck and was drinking at a friend's house before the crash.

Well isn't that just great!
He's 15 and driving alone
He's drunk
He's illegal

Police first charged the 15-year-old as a juvenile, but a judge transferred the case to Superior Court and another judge denied bond, finding that Gonzalez-Perez posed a flight risk.

Thankfully this judge has common sense. He needs to get out of our country after his prison sentence.
The family of the women should be able to sue the place that hired this illegal!
That might help out the issue on moving here illegally.