Raquel Nelson homicide conviction
About
The Raquel Nelson homicide conviction was a case in which a mother was convicted of second degree vehicular homicide on the grounds that she made a bad choice about where to cross a busy highway, resulting in the death of her 4-year-old son after he was struck by a vehicle.
Driver
The driver of the vehicle, Jerry L. Guy, pleaded guilty to hit-and-run in exchange for vehicular homicide charges against him being dropped. He was released on probation after serving six months of a five-year sentence.
Guy's attorney said that Guy confessed to having consumed "a little" alcohol earlier in the day, being prescribed pain medication and being partially blind in his left eye.
Guy had been previously convicted of two-hit-and-runs on Feb. 17, 1997, for which he was sentenced to two years but only served one.
Missing information
- We have not yet found any mention of the date when the accident occurred.
- There are actually two intersections of Austell Road and Austell Circle; it's not clear which one is the scene of the accident. A photo diagram in this article shows a scene which looks more like the unnamed road on the opposite side, and about halfway between the two intersections.
Links
Petition
Related
- 2011/07/27 [L..T] headline::Mom granted new trial in death of son struck by driver lead paragraph:: A Georgia woman convicted on misdemeanor charges in the death of her son after he darted out into traffic will receive a new trial, a judge ruled.
- 2011/07/26 [L..T] headline::Mom spared jail time after driver hits, kills boy lead paragraph:: A Georgia woman who was convicted on misdemeanor charges in the death of her son who darted out into traffic will not spend time in jail, a judge ruled Tuesday.
- 2011/07/25 [L..T] Let them eat bus transfers
- 2011/07/21 [L..T] Woman who lost child to hit and run driver convicted of vehicular homicide Forum thread discussing the traffic death of Raquel Nelson's 4-year-old child, and similar car-centric situations around the US.
- 2011/07/20 [L..T] When design kills: The criminalization of walking Raquel Nelson, an Atlanta-area mother, was recently convicted of vehicular homicide because her 4-year-old son was struck by a car and killed while she was crossing a busy street at an intersection with no crosswalk.
- 2011/07/18 [L..T] Prosecuting the victim, absolving the perpetrators
- 2011/07/15 [L..T] headline::Mother faces jail for killing son, four, after they crossed road in the wrong place - and he was struck by hit-and-run driver quote::Raquel Nelson, 30, could now spend more time in jail than the driver because she didn't use a crosswalk when she walked her three children over a busy street from a bus stop to their apartment in Marietta, Georgia.
- 2011/07/14 [L..T] headline::Pedestrian convicted of vehicular homicide in own child's death lead paragraph::A Marietta mother may serve more time than the driver who hit and killed her 4-year-old son.
- 2010/05/14 [L..T] Jaywalkers take deadly risks Jaywalkers have migrated to the suburbs. They venture across four- to eight-lane roads, often not using crosswalks, pausing on the raised medians or the middle “suicide lanes” to look for a break in traffic as cars whiz by. Sometimes the crossings end tragically, as it did last month for a young mother who watched her 4-year-old son killed in the road."