ST. LOUIS – A Tennessee teen who lost both of her legs after a crash this weekend in downtown St. Louis remains hospitalized Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the driver who police say caused the wreck has his first court hearing. 17-year-old Janae Edmondson was walking with her family on Saturday evening when the crash happened at the St. Charles and 11th Streets.
Her parents told a judge at the court hearing Tuesday about their daughter and the horrifying moments after the wreck as they did all they could to save her life.
Janae was in town for a volleyball tournament and had just been accepted to the University of Tennessee Southern. However, her family says Janae has been on a ventilator since the crash. An official with her volleyball team said she is stable but in critical condition.
Police revealed that 21-year-old Daniel Riley was driving the car that caused the wreck. Authorities said he sped through a yield sign at the intersection and hit another car. That car in turn crushed Edmondson.
Riley was arrested on second-degree assault charges. We’re told he was also driving without a license.
Riley pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday to the charges against him. Riley was out on bond related to a robbery case from August 2020. The case was supposed to go to trial last July, but was delayed.
Court records show Riley violated his GPS monitoring device 51 times, including 10 times in the last month.
Janae’s volleyball team wants justice. Governor Mike Parson weighed in on the incident as well.
“The prosecution should be firm and swift, so this never happens again because this should not have occurred,” Jeff Wismer from the Mid-Tennessee Volleyball Club expressed.
Parson added, “People are going to have to be held accountable, and we’re going to have to go back to the days when repeat offenders, violent offenders, are taken off the streets of our state and put in, be accountable for that.”
Riley was ordered to be held without bond at Tuesday’s hearing – a relief to Janae’s parents.