Raquel Nelson, who was convicted of three charges after a hit-and-run driver killed her son as the family jaywalked across the road, decided to go forth with a new trial, according to her attorney David Savoy. Nelson was charged with homicide by vehicle in the second degree after she led her three children across a four-lane road 0.3 miles away from a crosswalk because she was "trying to hurry up and get home so we wouldn't have to be in the dark" (Garner). .
In her original trial, Nelson was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and 12 months of probation. She was even excused from paying the $1,000 fines that the judge could have potentially imposed. However, Judge Katherine Tanksley offered her a new trial and a chance to clear her name (Garner).
The man who killed 4-year-old A.J. Nelson, Jerry L. Guy, was charged with five years in prison, but he was released after only six months of jail time to serve the remainder on probation. During his trial, he admitted that he had consumed a small amount of alcohol and pain medication before getting behind the wheel, in addition to being partially blind in one eye (Mannering). In 1997, he was found guilty of a similar offense (Garner). .
A crowd of supporters flooded the courtroom during Nelson's trial asking that Nelson not be charged. Reverend Dwight Graves, president of the Cobb County SCLC led a prayer before entering the courtroom asking for justice to be served. Even the prosecutors only asked for probation and community service. "The state never thought this defendant deserved jail time," said Cobb County Assistant Solicitor AnnaMarie Baltz (Garner). .
A.J.'s pre-K teacher disagreed even with the relatively easy sentencing Nelson received. "The purpose of punishment is for a person to pay their debt to society," she said. "Every time she has to check in with a probation officer or tell somebody what happened, she will have to relive this.
