Crime & Safety

Raquel Nelson Arrested on Eluding Police Charge

The Cobb woman accused of vehicular homicide in the 2010 death of her son as he crossed Austell Road now faces four unrelated misdemeanor charges.

Raquel Nelson, who was launched into the national spotlight after her 4-year-old son was struck and killed while crossing Austell Road in 2010, was arrested Friday by Cobb police on four unrelated charges.

The Marietta resident was taken into custody in the 200 block of Giibbs Street, jail records show. The four charges, all misdemeanors, are fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, affixing of materials which reduce light transmission through windows or windshield, speeding, and expired/no tag.

She made her $1,300 bond Saturday, records show.

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Patch has contacted Cobb police about the arrest and will provide further details when they are available.

The attorney who represented her in her son's death, Steven Sadow, said he was unaware of Friday's arrest and is only handling the case involving her son.

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On April 10, 2010, Nelson was crossing a darkened five-lane part of Austell Road with her son, A.J., and her two daughters a third of a mile from the nearest crosswalk. They were trying to get to their apartment complex from a Cobb Community Transit bus stop.

A.J. pulled away from her in the middle of the road and was struck and killed by Jerry Guy. According to Guy’s attorney, David Simpson, he admitted to consuming “a little” alcohol earlier that day, that he was prescribed pain medication and that he was partially blind in his left eye.

Guy served six months of his five-year sentence in jail and was released on Oct. 29, 2010. He is spending the remainder of his sentence on probation.

Nelson  of second-degree vehicular homicide, reckless conduct and crossing a roadway outside a crosswalk, all misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail each. The remote possibility that she could serve six times as long in jail as the driver sparked local, national and international outrage.

Cobb State Court Judge Kathryn Tanksley , then gave her the option to have a retrial.  but has since sought a  with Sadow, who took the case after her sentencing.

Tanksley  but , meaning Nelson could get two years in jail if convicted again.

The retrial, initially scheduled for last November, is on hold .

 


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