Suspect indicted in crash resulting in death of 11-year-old boy on Highway 271
Published 6:00 pm Thursday, August 30, 2018
- Josue Alejandro Prado Ramirez mugshot (Courtesy of Smith County)
A Smith County grand jury handed up an indictment on the 22-year-old man believed to be responsible for a June 17 hit-and-run crash that killed an 11-year-old boy.
Josue Alejandro Prado Ramirez, of Athens, faces a second-degree felony charge of accident involving death, according to the most recently released grand jury agenda. Ramirez is scheduled for arraignment on Sept. 17.
Ramirez was driving a 2008 Volkswagen Passat in the 9800 block of U.S. Highway 271 when he struck Demarion Williams, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained from the 241st District Court.
The crash occurred shorty before 2 a.m. It was more than six hours before law enforcement was dispatched to the scene, according to the document.
The affidavit said Ramirez told investigators he was worried he had hit a person but was too scared to call an ambulance.
The document said police did not know the boy’s identity when they responded to the scene because he had no identification.
However, the boy was reported missing and investigators determined he was the victim.
The affidavit said a nearby business owner told police his surveillance cameras had filmed a black car drive into his parking lot about 2 a.m.
The security camera footage showed two people get out of the car and appear to check it for damage, according to the document. The business owner told police the woman in the footage lived nearby.
Police determined Ramirez’s girlfriend Alexis Mone Herring was the woman seen in the surveillance camera footage, according to the document.
Herring told investigators Ramirez was the driver of the vehicle that hit the boy.
Police located Ramirez, who admitted he hit something that also bounced off his windshield, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Ramirez said he stopped, but did so to get out of the vehicle to check for damages. He also told police he saw a shoe, hat and cellphone in the median of U.S. 271, according to the document.
The document said Ramirez admitted he thought about calling an ambulance but didn’t stop in the area to see if anyone was injured because he was scared.
Investigators went to Williams’ home, talked to his mother and obtained a current photograph, according to the document. Police confirmed the boy’s identity and learned the he had run away from home about 1 a.m.
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