Five years for role in fatal wreck

By Editor | November 6, 2019 |

About seven months after accepting a partial plea agreement for his role in a fatal accident in June of last year, a Missouri man has been sentenced to five years in prison.

During a hearing in Fayette County Circuit Court last Wednesday, Fayette County Resident Circuit Judge Don Sheafor gave Ray Ryan a sentence that is 10 years below the maximum, but only two years below what was agreed upon in March.
On March 12, Fayette County State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison and Ryan’s court-appointed attorney, Ryan Connor told Sheafor they had reached a partial plea agreement on a charge of failure to report an accident involving injury or death.
In accepting that agreement, Sheafor set a cap of seven years in prison for Ryan on the Class 1 felony charge. By law, the maximum penalty for a Class 1 felony is 15 years.
Ryan, 60, of Buffalo, Mo., was arrested on that and other charges on June 22 of last year, two days after an accident on Interstate 70 between Vandalia and Mulberry Grove that claimed the life of a Canada man.
According to an Illinois State Police report, Peter F. Peters, 46, of Elmira, Ontario, Canada, had parked his tractor-trailer along I-70 near milepost 55.5 in Fayette County and was standing outside the vehicle on the driver’s side, near the middle of the trailer when his vehicle was sideswiped.
The state police said that Peters was pinched between the two vehicles and was fatally injured, and that the driver causing the accident had left the scene.
Ryan was taken into custody in Ohio two days after the accident. His bond was initially set at $1 million, but lowered to $500,000 a week later.
Ryan has been in Fayette County Jail since his arrest and will receive credit for the 504 days he has been in jail.
He will also receive day-for-day credit while in prison.
In addition to initially being charged with failure to report an accident involving injury or death, Ryan was charged with reckless driving causing bodily harm, failure to give information or render aid following an accident, failure to notice of an accident, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and improper lane usage.
Those other charges were dismissed through the plea bargaining.
Ryan Connor noted that Peters’ family members are Mennonites and that they asked that Ryan not be prosecuted, saying that he can only be judged by God.
Also in Fayette County Circuit Court, Christopher Cox, 23, of Vandalia, pleaded guilty to the charges of indecent solicitation of a child and grooming (using a computer and/or Internet service, To seduce, solicit, lure, or entice, A child and/or their guardian, To commit a sex offense or engage in unlawful sexual conduct with a child), and was sentenced by Judge Kevin Parker to 48 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections.