St. Louis teen charged with DWI manslaughter
A St. Louis teen has been charged with involuntary manslaughter – DWI for a fatal accident two months ago.
Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant Friday for Christopher Ransfer, 17, of the 3700 block of Virginia Avenue.
Charging documents say that Ransfer was driving a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am on Sept. 14 when he hit Lionel Speidel, who was crossing the street just a block from Ransfer’s home. Ransfer was impaired by marijuana at the time of the accident, prosecutors say.
Speidel, 83, died at the hospital. He also lived close to the scene of the accident, police said.
Ransfer stopped after the accident. Police said in September that they did not anticipate that he would be charged.
Ransfer could not be reached for comment Saturday. Two phone numbers listed for his family had been disconnected.
Ransfer’s bond has been set at $150,000.
(5 votes, average: 2.4 out of 5)
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A speeding, out-of-control Pontiac. Imagine that? Not to stereotype or anything.
An out-of-control teenage. A car that no teenager should have. A teenager smoking Pot. He has been ruined for the rest of his life. The poor man he hit did not have a chance to live out his full life.
…and so it goes!
Mr. Patrick — I would be most interested in details regarding this case.
If the police stated at the time that they expected no charges to be filed and, since he wasn’t arrested on drug charges, also did not find anything on him, how is it after two months they claim he was high?
Did they do a blood alcohol test and then, for the heck of it, check him for a drug panel which tested positive for marijuana? If that is the case, they surely must know the test for marijuana is the most inaccurate for any drug out there. Pot remains in the system for days, so testing positive at the time of the accident means Ransfer could have smoked a joint at a party days before.
Perhaps somebody ratted on him. Otherwise, I cannot come up with how prosecutors have any ability to do this.
Tragic? Certainly. His life “ruined”? Probably not. He may not even be charged as an adult, which means he is out of Juvie in a year. Even if he is charged as an adult, he is out around his twenty-first birthday and has plenty of time to make a fine life for himself.
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/
sav livs dn’t txt & drv
Get these children off the roads. Life is not a video game. New York’s laws make their grade point average a consideration for the driving privilage. Wake up Missouri. You might have tunnel vision.
My thoughts echo Ersatz, please keep me posted.
This was truely an accident. In STL all cars are parked on the streets and this man (my prays are with his family) was crossing in between cars parked on the streets not at the crosswalk according to the reports from the witnesses and the crime scene police when it happen. This child was not DWI or the police would have charged him with this crime at that time. As far as the child not having a car he’s finished school all kids look forward to getting a car at that age besides it’s a ‘99 not a ‘10. Noone knows when or how we will leave this earth whether it be natural causes or an unfortunate accident. This may have not ruined his life but may have helped it to see something like this happen and he didn’t mean it could have opened his eyes on the reality of life that we older people know so well. Children these days have jobs that they need their own transportation to get to. Its the elderly people that don’t need to be one the road. My prayers are with both families.