Three teenagers were arrested in the death of an Ohio mother who attempted to stop carjackers from taking her SUV with her sleeping 6-year-old son inside while picking him up from the babysitter, according to authorities.
Gerald F. Dowling Jr., 19, and two 16-year-old boys are charged with murder in the death of Alexa Stakely, 29, according to the Columbus Division of Police. Law&Crime does not name the 16-year-olds since they have not been charged as adults.
According to a news release, the first arrest was made on Wednesday when one of the juveniles came forward with his parents to Columbus Police headquarters. According to local ABC/Fox affiliate WSYX, the youngster confessed to his parents while they were discussing the tragedy.
“We’re grateful to his parents for doing the right thing, as difficult as it must have been for them,” Sgt. Joe Albert, a Columbus police spokesperson, told the site.
The boy told investigators that he took Stakely’s automobile and killed her with it, according to the news release. He claimed it happened while he and two others were looking for a car to steal and came across hers early that morning, according to authorities.
“When Ms. Stakely approached the car, he claimed it startled him, and he panicked and drove away, striking Mrs. Stakely, resulting in her death,” Albert told local CBS affiliate WBNS.
The second arrest occurred hours later. According to authorities, the second 16-year-old admitted to being present when Stakely’s vehicle was stolen.
Dowling was the third suspect to come forward to Columbus authorities Headquarters following the second arrest, and he admitted to his role in the incident, according to authorities.
According to Law&Crime, Stakely was slain on July 11. Police were dispatched to the 6300 block of Blue Knoll Drive at 1:27 a.m. on a complaint of a person being struck by a car, according to a news release.
Officers discovered Stakely lying in the street with serious injuries, according to officials. She died in the hospital at 8:43 a.m.
Stakely had just finished her shift at her second job as a server and was about to pick up her son from the babysitter’s house.
She was ready to drive away when she remembered leaving one of his belongings and returned to retrieve it. She exited the vehicle and went to the door, leaving her Honda CRV idling just outside the babysitter’s condo. When she got back into her car, she noticed it had returned to the road. She went toward it but was struck and flung to the ground.
The Honda was driven through the apartment complex and left a short distance away.
In a subsequent press release, police stated that two suspects were spotted fleeing past Stakely, who was lying on the ground, over a fence, and into a nearby apartment complex. Police discovered the sleeping toddler in the CRV, unhurt.
Police said surveillance footage captured a group of males looking into apartments earlier that morning, including two who matched the description of the persons engaged in the incident.
Dowling was detained in Franklin County, Ohio, on a $10 million bond. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 2, according to online jail and court records. The two 16-year-olds are being held at a juvenile detention center and are scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Monday. Prosecutors plan to trial them as adults, according to Lawandcrime.