ST. LOUIS COUNTY • The St. Louis man accused of leaving the scene of a crash that killed a 4-year-old boy in Pagedale on Friday has not driven a car legally in nearly two decades.
Ricky R. Weeden's driver's license was revoked in April 1993 for refusing to take a breath test during a traffic stop, according to drivers license records, and he never got it back. Weeden has been convicted for driving while intoxicated at least six more times since then.
He was also involved in a 1983 crash in St. Louis that killed two people, although the full extent of Weeden's criminal history is not clear.
Weeden, 54, of the 4900 block of San Francisco Avenue, was charged Monday with leaving the scene of a crash that killed 4-year-old Trayeshon Williams and injured his brother Jayshard Conner, 10. The St. Louis County grand jury is expected to review the case for other possible charges.
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Trayeshon and Jayshard were crossing the 7300 block of St. Charles Rock Road about 7:30 p.m. Friday when a GMC Sierra pickup driven by Weeden hit them and kept going, the Missouri Highway Patrol says. Trayeshon died at the scene. Jayshard was released Tuesday from St. Louis Children's Hospital.
"He should have been off the streets a long time ago," said the boys' grandmother, Joyce Richardson, 56, of Waco, Texas.
In the September 1983 fatal crash, Weeden broadsided another car on Goodfellow Boulevard near Interstate 70, killing two people and injuring two more. Court records say St. Louis city police sought charges of manslaughter, assault and careless and imprudent driving against Weeden. However, Weeden was charged only with careless and imprudent driving and freed on a $50 bail.
Two of Weeden's convictions since he lost his license in 1993 have been felonies labeling him a "persistent offender."
Missouri law defines persistent offenders as those with at least two previous DWI convictions or who have been involved in an alcohol-related crash that injured or killed someone.
Weeden also has multiple violations for speeding, running stop signs and driving without a license and related bench warrants in St. Louis city dating back more than a decade, records show.
Weeden's longest prison sentence in the last 16 years has not exceeded two years and 10 months. Records before 1996 were not available Tuesday.
Weeden was sentenced in 2005 to four years of probation after St. Louis County police caught him driving under the influence at Halls Ferry Road and Hecht Drive two years earlier. The state revoked Weeden's probation in June 2007 and ordered him to serve four years in prison. But he didn't serve all four years because he was stopped again by Wellston police in April 2010 and charged with misdemeanor DWI. For that charge, he spent 90 days in the St. Louis County jail.
It was not clear why prosecutors sometimes charged Weeden with felonies and sometimes misdemeanors. St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch was not available Tuesday to explain.
Ricky R. Weeden, of St. Louis, was sentenced to five years in prison in a hit-and-run crash that left a 4-year-old boy dead.
Joel Currier is a breaking news reporter for STLtoday.com and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
