By Katie Kull
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — A city judge sentenced a Honduran man on Thursday to 15 years in prison for speeding down a rainy highway with meth, ketamine, cocaine and alcohol in his system and killing a St. Louis police officer.
Ramon Chavez-Rodriguez, 25, cried in court as he apologized for losing control of his car on Interstate 70, striking Officer David Lee.
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“It wasn’t my intention to take this hero’s life from this beautiful nation,” he said in Spanish. “From the bottom of my heart, I ask for forgiveness.”
At Thursday’s sentencing, prosecutors argued that Chavez-Rodriguez had been reckless that day in 2024 and deserved years in prison. Lee’s family said his death devastated them. At the same time, defense attorneys provided the fullest accounting yet of how Chavez-Rodriguez got to the U.S., built a family and ended up on I-70 that day.
In the back of the courtroom, a line of police officers stood, watching the hearing. Chief Robert Tracy said the sentencing provided some closure but couldn’t alleviate the pain and grief of losing an 18-year veteran of the department.
“We’re not going to forget,” Tracy said.
Chavez-Rodriguez grew up in Honduras. When he was 14, he was working for a bus company, lawyer Shawn Goulet said in court, when he was approached by the country’s gangs with a threat: Join us or die.
The gang was extorting the bus company, Chavez-Rodriguez’s immigration lawyer Ken Schmitt explained in court testimony, and they’d already killed eight people who worked there.
So Chavez-Rodriguez left.
He came to the U.S. through Mexico and claimed asylum. He was arrested and sent to a juvenile immigration detention facility in New York, Goulet said, where he remained until he turned 18.
A church group posted bond for Chavez-Rodriguez. He was released, and applied to stay in the country permanently.
He moved to the St. Louis region, got a job, got married and had four children with his wife, who is a U.S. citizen.
In 2020, Chavez-Rodriguez was arrested for an assault case in St. Charles County, where he was living. Police said he kicked down the door of a home he shared with a woman, beat her, took her baby and drove away.
In court on Thursday, Chavez-Rodriguez’s wife disputed that account, saying she reported him to the police because she was angry at him for going out drinking after work when they had a baby at home.
He didn’t hurt her or the child, she said, and she had wanted to drop the charges.
Instead, Chavez-Rodriguez pleaded guilty in that case and was sentenced in 2022 to probation.
Still, in the years after that, Chavez-Rodriguez’s wife said they worked on their marriage. He filed for a permanent visa, and he’d gotten a court date for his asylum case after years of waiting.
Then, on Sept. 22, 2024, “my world turned upside down,” she said.
Chavez-Rodriguez had attended a party the night before for his son’s birthday and left home that morning to go play soccer with a group of friends, his lawyer said.
At around 8:30 a.m., Lee, 44, was responding to a single-car accident on I-70 near North Grand Avenue. He was removing items from his truck when a Kia Sorrento driving 70 miles per hour, 15 over the speed limit, spun out and hit him.
Lee was pinned between two vehicles and then thrown several feet, police said.
Chavez-Rodriguez was arrested at the scene. A blood draw two hours after the crash found he had a blood-alcohol content of .10% — above the legal limit in Missouri of .08.
Since then, Lee’s family has been grieving a man described as quiet and dedicated to his work who loved sports, traveling and family get-togethers.
Lee’s mother, Dorothy Williams, said on Thursday she deeply misses her son. She said she wishes he could still stop by to check on her while patrolling her neighborhood and watch his own children grow up.
“Every day I wonder when this nightmare is going to be over,” she said.
Lee’s sister, Danielle Williams, said she hopes the case serves as a cautionary tale for people not to drink or do drugs and drive.
“We all can make better decisions,” she said.
After about two hours of argument, Judge Madeline Connolly sentenced Chavez-Rodriguez to 15 years in prison — the maximum.
His immigration case is pending.
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