By Katie Kull
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — A metropolis decide sentenced a Honduran man on Thursday to fifteen years in jail for rushing down a wet freeway with meth, ketamine, cocaine and alcohol in his system and killing a St. Louis police officer.
Ramon Chavez-Rodriguez, 25, cried in court docket as he apologized for shedding management of his automobile on Interstate 70, placing Officer David Lee.
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“It wasn’t my intention to take this hero’s life from this beautiful nation,” he stated in Spanish. “From the bottom of my heart, I ask for forgiveness.”
At Thursday’s sentencing, prosecutors argued that Chavez-Rodriguez had been reckless that day in 2024 and deserved years in jail. Lee’s household stated his loss of life devastated them. At the identical time, protection attorneys supplied the fullest accounting but of how Chavez-Rodriguez obtained to the U.S., constructed a household and ended up on I-70 that day.
In the again of the courtroom, a line of law enforcement officials stood, watching the listening to. Chief Robert Tracy stated the sentencing supplied some closure however couldn’t alleviate the ache and grief of shedding an 18-year veteran of the division.
“We’re not going to forget,” Tracy stated.
Chavez-Rodriguez grew up in Honduras. When he was 14, he was working for a bus firm, lawyer Shawn Goulet stated in court docket, when he was approached by the nation’s gangs with a menace: Join us or die.
The gang was extorting the bus firm, Chavez-Rodriguez’s immigration lawyer Ken Schmitt defined in court docket testimony, and so they’d already killed eight individuals who labored there.
So Chavez-Rodriguez left.
He got here to the U.S. by Mexico and claimed asylum. He was arrested and despatched to a juvenile immigration detention facility in New York, Goulet stated, the place he remained till he turned 18.
A church group posted bond for Chavez-Rodriguez. He was launched, and utilized to remain within the nation completely.
He moved to the St. Louis area, obtained a job, obtained married and had 4 youngsters together with his spouse, who’s a U.S. citizen.
In 2020, Chavez-Rodriguez was arrested for an assault case in St. Charles County, the place he was residing. Police stated he kicked down the door of a house he shared with a girl, beat her, took her child and drove away.
In court docket on Thursday, Chavez-Rodriguez’s spouse disputed that account, saying she reported him to the police as a result of she was offended at him for going out ingesting after work after they had a child at house.
He didn’t damage her or the kid, she stated, and he or she had wished to drop the costs.
Instead, Chavez-Rodriguez pleaded responsible in that case and was sentenced in 2022 to probation.
Still, within the years after that, Chavez-Rodriguez’s spouse stated they labored on their marriage. He filed for a everlasting visa, and he’d gotten a court docket date for his asylum case after years of ready.
Then, on Sept. 22, 2024, “my world turned upside down,” she stated.
Chavez-Rodriguez had attended a celebration the night time earlier than for his son’s birthday and left house that morning to go play soccer with a gaggle of buddies, his lawyer stated.
At round 8:30 a.m., Lee, 44, was responding to a single-car accident on I-70 close to North Grand Avenue. He was eradicating objects from his truck when a Kia Sorrento driving 70 miles per hour, 15 over the pace restrict, spun out and hit him.
Lee was pinned between two automobiles after which thrown a number of ft, police stated.
Chavez-Rodriguez was arrested on the scene. A blood draw two hours after the crash discovered he had a blood-alcohol content material of .10% — above the authorized restrict in Missouri of .08.
Since then, Lee’s household has been grieving a person described as quiet and devoted to his work who beloved sports activities, touring and household get-togethers.
Lee’s mom, Dorothy Williams, stated on Thursday she deeply misses her son. She stated she needs he may nonetheless cease by to test on her whereas patrolling her neighborhood and watch his personal youngsters develop up.
“Every day I wonder when this nightmare is going to be over,” she stated.
Lee’s sister, Danielle Williams, stated she hopes the case serves as a cautionary story for individuals to not drink or do medicine and drive.
“We all can make better decisions,” she stated.
After about two hours of argument, Judge Madeline Connolly sentenced Chavez-Rodriguez to fifteen years in jail — the utmost.
His immigration case is pending.
The Greenville Police Department officer was launched from the hospital following the capturing; the suspect was later fatally shot by Greenville County Sheriff’s deputies
One Henderson Police officer fired pictures on the suspect as he approached her with the entrance loader; one other officer shot on the man as he used the gear to ram two cruisers
Vancouver Police officers responded to the scene after a 911 caller reported her daughter’s companion was emotionally disturbed and threatening to hurt himself with the gun
Joseph “Joe” Alu Jr. served as a Plantation PD officer for greater than 20 years, regardless of being severely burned in a house explosion throughout a hostage name on July 25, 1995
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