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Mom charged in teen son's crash that killed girl, 14

She let son, 15, drive the car that killed a 14-year-old in a crash.

By Abhi Raghunathan, Times Staff Writer
Published March 7, 2008

Sept. 17: With her arm in a sling from the accident, Brittany Vinson, 14, gives her condolences to Michelle Carreras along with Anna Mills, 14, at a memorial for Carreras' daughter, Raquel. Carreras was glad to hear Lesa Ledesma was arrested.
	[Willie J. Allen, Jr. | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Family photo] Raquel Carreras, 14, was killed in the car accident on Sept. 15 in St. Petersburg. Lesa Lynn Ledesma is charged.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Fifteen-year-old Shawn Ledesma wanted to pick up some friends on a Saturday night last September. So he asked his mom for the keys to the Saturn Ion.

He had received his learner's permit only a month before. He wasn't supposed to drive after 10 p.m. or without a licensed 21-year-old in the passenger seat. Still, his mom gave him the keys, authorities say.

The result: Shawn crashed the Ion that night while ferrying five friends; none was wearing a seat belt. Raquel Carreras, a 14-year-old Northeast High School cheerleader, was killed.

On Wednesday, authorities took an unusual step and arrested Shawn's mother, Lesa Ledesma, 42, on a felony charge of second-degree manslaughter. By letting her son drive, authorities say, she also was responsible for Raquel's death.

Shawn was arrested in December on a charge of vehicular homicide.

"The mother was very reckless in allowing a kid who doesn't have a license and just got his learner's license to operate a vehicle at night with a bunch of other people in the car," Bruce Bartlett, the chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, said Thursday. "We feel that she deserves to have some accountability for what actually happened."

The case appears to be unique. Bartlett said prosecutors couldn't find another case with a similar set of facts as they researched the one against Lesa Ledesma, and that "a lot of thought" went into the decision to charge her.

Several legal experts, who are not connected to the case, called it unique and said it could be a difficult one to prove.

Michelle Carreras, 46, Raquel's mother, praised the decision to arrest Ledesma. "It's the first time I've smiled in six months," she said.

Carreras still has trouble getting up every day. She says she talks to Raquel regularly. On Christmas, she bought Raquel a water globe.

"She (Ledesma) gave him the keys," Carreras said. "This is a mother. She should have known better."

* * *

It began on Sept. 15, with the jumbled plans and confusion that parents expect from teenagers.

Raquel and some friends said they were going to spend the night at a friend's house. Instead, they ended up at the ParkSide movie theater in Pinellas Park, but decided to leave because one of the girls was having boyfriend issues.

They walked to a McDonald's restaurant and called friends for a ride, prompting Shawn's request for the car.

Ledesma had allowed her son to take her car by himself before, even though she knew it was illegal, according to an affidavit from Florida Highway Patrol Cpl. Douglas Guy.

Several people saw Ledesma give him the keys and her permission to take the Ion out that night, Guy wrote.

She was "fully aware that Shawn would be operating the motor vehicle without the supervision of a licensed adult," Guy wrote.

After Shawn met the group, they eventually decided to go to Shawn's house.

Aaron Elliott, 17, and a 16-year-old friend were driving separately in a 2001 Nissan pickup. Both wore seat belts.

Shawn ferried five passengers ages 14 to 15, including Raquel. No one wore a seat belt.

As he was heading east on 62nd Avenue N, the FHP says, Shawn tried to overtake Elliott's pickup. Just five seconds before the crash, Shawn was going more than 70 mph in a 40 mph zone, according to the FHP. He lost control about 500 feet west of Calais Boulevard around 10:45 p.m.

The FHP says Shawn, who was in the outside lane, swerved into the inside lane, hit Elliott's pickup, then spun out of control and eventually hit an oak tree.

Raquel was thrown through the sun roof and killed. Several others were injured.

The accident stunned Northeast High, where hundreds of students paid their respects at the accident site, leaving balloons and flowers.

Michelle Carreras kept her daughter's phone number after Raquel's death. She says friends still call to hear Raquel's voice.

She said she was once in a Girl Scout Brownie troop with Ledesma, and thinks that she was trying to buddy up to her son when she gave him the keys.

"It's our responsibility as parents to make sure our kids do what they're supposed to do," Carreras said. "We're not supposed to be their friends."

Ledesma, who was released on bail, could not be reached for comment. Scott Tremblay, an attorney representing Shawn, said he could not comment.

* * *

When told about the case, several legal experts agreed that Ledesma may not have behaved responsibly by letting her son drive. Still, they predicted it would be difficult to secure a manslaughter conviction.

Stephen Romine, a senior attorney with Cohen, Jayson & Foster who specializes in criminal trial law, said prosecutors have to do more than prove that Ledesma was negligent under the state's manslaughter statute.

"Under the arena that the state has chosen to fight this battle, they have obligated themselves to show that her negligence rose to such a level that she either knew or reasonably should have known that giving her son those keys would result in death or serious bodily injury," Romine said.

Robert Batey, a professor of criminal law at Stetson University College of Law, said a number of factors could limit Ledesma's culpability for Raquel's death, such as the actions of other passengers in the car or any unusual driving decisions made by Shawn. If Ledesma reasonably expected her son to be a safe driver, then she couldn't be held responsible.

"It would be a difficult case, but certainly not impossible," Batey said.

Just handing Shawn the keys would not be enough to constitute reckless behavior, said Michael Seigel, a professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law.

"They have to prove that she was aware of the likelihood that he would drive recklessly," Seigel said.

Bartlett, the chief assistant in the State Attorney's Office, said that prosecutors felt "that the mother was very reckless."

"She broke the law by letting him drive. And as a result of her letting him drive illegally it resulted in death."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.

[Last modified March 7, 2008, 00:12:03]