Convicted Mom: 'This Will Never End'
Raquel Nelson takes her plea for mercy to the "Today" show a day before her sentencing in her son's death, caused by a hit-and-run driver.
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The mother convicted of vehicular homicide in her 4-year-old son’s jaywalking death near Austell says she isn’t focusing on the possibility that she will serve more jail time than the drunken driver who killed her boy.
“I’ve had to accept that he’s gotten six months,” Raquel Nelson said on this morning’s Today show on NBC. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”
Under a plea deal, Jerry Guy served six months of a five-year sentence for hit-and-run in the child’s death April 10, 2010. It was his third hit-and-run conviction.
A judge Tuesday could sentence Nelson, 30, to a year behind bars for each of the three misdemeanors a jury convicted her of this month: second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct and crossing a roadway elsewhere than a crosswalk.
A prison term of three years is highly unlikely for misdemeanors, but regardless of the sentence, Nelson said, “this will never end for me.”
She said the worst part of any prison sentence would be the separation from her two daughters.
“I think my other two daughters are the reason I was able to survive the situation,” Nelson said.
Loretta Williams, an aunt of Nelson’s who appeared with her on Today, said she hopes the judge is compassionate enough to let Nelson stay with her surviving children.
The girls were with Nelson when son A.J. darted into Austell Road that April evening and was fatally struck by Guy’s car. Nelson and one of her daughters also were hit and slightly injured.
Nelson and the children were crossing from their bus stop to their apartment complex after a grocery-shopping trip. The nearest crosswalk was a little more than 500 yards away.
Today’s Ann Curry asked why the family crossed in the middle of Austell Road, and Nelson said that even if they had gone to the crosswalk, they would have been forced to cross a dark side street to get home.
Following a common thread in commentary on her plight, Nelson said she didn’t think the middle-class jury that convicted her represented her peers.
“I don’t think they could relate to what I was going through,” she said, because they didn’t use public transit and weren’t single mothers. “They’ve never really been in my shoes.”
L M Wollesen
12:41 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
WEll, the real problems is out driving around again and drinking, who else will
become his victum. This mother needs to be sent home to her daughters and
she has suffered losing a child and blaming her self. She needs help not time
locked up. Heaven help her. LMW
jackie house
2:42 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
i AM SICKENED BY THIS. THAT MOTHER WELL END UP SPENDING MORE TIME IN JAIL THAN THE 3RD TIME DRUNK DRIVER WHO KILLED HER SON, AND YOU CAN BET HE JUST GOT CAUGHT 3 TIMES AND HE WILL BACK OUT ON THE STREETS TO KILL AGAIN. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SOCIETY. THE MOTHER NEEDS TO BE HOME WITH HER CHILDREN. IF SHE GETS CONVICTED OF THIS THAN WE ALL NEED TO WRITE TO THE REPS AND CONGRESS.
Cheryl Vinson
2:49 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
What astounds me the most about this is the fact tht the person who killed her son has only spent 6 mths in jail in spite of the fact that this was his 3rd hit and run--are you serious? She gets slapped with a vehicular homicide charge yet didn't have a car. I'm sorry, Cobb County was wrong on this one--especially if she spends one day longer in jail than the man who actually killed her child.
janice polk
2:51 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
It's a shame! The judges keep letting that man out. Maybe when their kin gets killed/hurt by that drunk driver they'll lock him up for good.
Kiri Walton
3:28 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
A comment was removed from this thread due to its use of abusive language, which is a violation of Patch Terms of Use: http://southcobb.patch.com/terms
Patch welcomes lively debate, but we ask everyone to keep it clean. No profanity or masked profanity (ex: f&$!) and no name-calling. Thanks.
Bill Jenkins
5:03 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
I just love censorship! Good going comrade.
Kiri Walton
5:57 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
Hi Bill, I would have to say that Patch is one of few media outlets does not censor very many comments and the ones that we do delete are abusive or violate our terms of service.
Cheryl Vinson
10:56 am on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thank you for removing the aforementioned comment. I was rather surprised to see it and even moreso that it had not been removed. There was no cause for the type of language that was used. Certainly the person could have expressed themselves in a more mature and less offensive way.
mary collins finn
7:20 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
This is ridiculous. I hope the judge shows compassion.
karen friedmann
7:25 pm on Monday, July 25, 2011
I watched the morning show and was SICKENED by this woman's conviction and that despicable man's sentence!!!!!!!!!!! This is justice?! My heart goes out to Raquel and her family, for what they went through that night and ever since. What a strong woman.
Poot
8:44 am on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Tragically, BOTH people are responsible for this death, whether you people like it or not. To behave as if the drunk driver was solely responsible is being rather tunnelvisioned considering this woman was responsible for placing the child in harms way by performing an illegal act. This is why jaywalking is illegal, kids... or do you just pick the laws to enforce based on sympathy and race? And, just because she CAN be sentenced to that much, don't simply assume she will be. Her place is with her kids, and I'm sure the judge knows that.
Wayne Ivy
10:48 am on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
This is an agregious abuse of our judicial system. First you have this individual who has been involved in his third hit and run, how is it possible that he keeps getting a chance to do it again. Secondly, you have the justice system in Cobb County being heartless and evil by bringing greater suffering to Ms. Nelson and her family, by prosecuting her. These charges were over reaching and malicious.
Wayne