ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man was sentenced to five years in prison after striking a plea deal for a 2018 crash that left a 15-year-old girl dead.
Kenderick D. Moore, 29, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal crash, vehicle tampering and involuntary manslaughter Thursday. He was sentenced to five years in prison but will get credit for the three years of jail time already served.
On September 20, 2018, 15-year-old Devonna Riggins was on her way home at around 3:30 a.m. when her car was hit by another vehicle on West Florissant Avenue near Thrush Avenue. She was thrown out of the car through the window and killed.
In 2020, her grandmother Ruby Hendrix told the I-Team police had a suspect. But for months, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's office refused to issue charges because one of the officers involved in the investigation was on her exclusion list and thought to be unreliable based on that officer's past behavior.
After the I-Team's initial report exactly a year after the crash, Gardner's office took a second look at the suspect.
Her office issued in January of 2020.
Charging documents said Moore was in a stolen car when he hit Riggins and that he left his DNA on an airbag at the scene of the crash.
On Thursday, Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty accepted Moore's plea agreement. The deal included concurrent terms of five years for manslaughter, four years for vehicle tampering and four years for leaving the scene of the crash scene.