Ricky Weeden has at least five DUIs.
Rayeshon Williams, age four, died at the scene. His ten-year-old brother, Jayshard Conner, is recovering from injuries at the hospital. On Sunday 54-year-old Ricky Weeden of St. Louis turned himself in. Authorities say they discovered a pickup truck at Weeden's residence that matched the description of the vehicle that fled the scene after striking the siblings.
Court records indicate that Weeden has a long history of being wasted behind the wheel.
As the Post-Dispatch documents this morning, Weeden has been convicted of a drunk driving on at least five previous occasions and apparently was charged with careless and imprudent driving in another accident that killed two people in 1983.
So what the hell is this guy still doing on the road? Court documents show that Weeden was charged with misdemeanors for some of his more recent DWIs and given probation or short jail stints despite guidelines that "persistent DWI offenders" be charged with felony charges that carry stiffer penalities.
Given the nearly 48-hour time lapse between the accident and Weeden's arrest, we may never know if the suspect was drunk when he allegedly crashed into the brothers. At the moment his only charge is leaving the scene of a fatal crash. He's being held in St. Louis County jail with bail set at $50,000.
