Post by Scumhunter on Jan 17, 2018 4:36:28 GMT -5
(Above: David Garcia (wanted) Photo Credit: dailyjournalonline.com)
Fugitive Profile as of January 17th, 2018: (Based on Ste. Genevieve County (Missouri) Sheriff's Office website- Most Wanted section)
SEX: male
DOB: 1985-04-28
Hair:
Eyes:
Height: 61"
Weight:
Race: Hispanic
Who to call if you've seen him: Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's Office at (573)-883-5820
From dailyjournalonline.com: (2010 article)
FARMINGTON — Four-year-old Bradley Lewis II looks just like his daddy did at his age.
He’s got short hair, big eyes and an adorable smile.
When he starts playing T-ball this year, his daddy won’t get to watch him from the stands with the other parents even though his dad loved baseball. Grandma Donna Lewis will never be able to look out her window and see her son and his child playing baseball together in the backyard.
Little Bradley wants to know why his daddy is in heaven and why the only moments he’s ever spent with his daddy is when he visits him at the graveyard. He knows exactly where the grave is and often bends down to kiss his daddy’s picture on the headstone.
Brad Lewis’ death
Even though it was almost five years ago, Donna remembers Saturday, April 23, 2005, very well.
Paul “Brad” Lewis, the youngest of her four children, always wanted to be taller than his dad, Richard, who is 6 foot 3. That night, Brad had his dad to stand back-to-back. This time, he was taller. His dad reminded him that it didn’t matter because he was still “Dad.”
They hugged and Richard told his son he loved him. Then Donna hugged Brad, also telling him that she loved him.
Brad was sad because his friend and classmate, Clint Lee had just died the day before. He had asked his sister-in-law to give him a haircut for the funeral.
At about 10 p.m. he decided to go out. His mom, seeing how late it was, suggested the family go out to eat at Steak N Shake instead.
Brad, a 17-year-old Farmington High School junior who worked at Ponderosa, didn’t want to spend a Saturday night out with his family. He wanted to just go out and see what was going on.
So again, his mom reminded him that she loved him, told him to be careful and to be back by midnight.
It was 1 a.m. when Richard and Donna got a call from St. John’s Mercy Medical Center telling them that their son had been in a serious accident.
“It was always something that can happen to someone else … not us,” she said.
The crash had happened on Highway 32 just barely inside Ste. Genevieve County at 10:30 p.m.
Witnesses have told Donna that a truck driven by 19-year-old David Garcia passed eight vehicles before hitting Brad’s vehicle head-on at a very high rate of speed. Brad had seen the truck coming on a curve and he had pulled off the road in an effort to avoid getting hit, his mother said.
Brad’s legs were crushed, his head was banged up, and he was pinned in the vehicle. Garcia was also seriously injured, breaking both legs and an arm.
Donna said among the people to stop to offer help to her son were a nurse, a dentist, a vet and a volunteer firefighter. She knows there wasn’t much they could do because he was stuck in his truck.
Weingarten was the responding fire department and they didn’t have the equipment needed to cut Brad out of his truck.
She said while Farmington Fire Department wasn’t dispatched, Farmington firefighters heard about the crash and responded with their Jaws of Life while another fire department was on its way. They were able to free him.
She said her son was talking and told someone he had to be home by midnight. He asked someone to call his parents to let them know he wouldn’t be home on time.
She wished she had been called. She’s been told the bad cell phone signal there made it hard to make a phone call.
Early on Monday morning, Brad died. His organs were donated, saving the lives of 11 people.
His big sister, Rachael, posted on a Facebook page, “It was the worst day of our lives. Who would have ever thought this would have happened to us … our family. I know he fought so hard but just couldn’t do it…”
Good News
The weeks after that are a blur for the family. Somehow, she’s not sure how, they managed to attend Clint Lee’s visitation. They were pushed to the front of the line.
She said the outpour of support from people when Brad died was amazing. The line at Taylor Funeral Home was so long the funeral home had to send the later-comers home. Still, the visitation didn’t end until 11 p.m.
During the funeral procession the next day, a school bus followed the hearse. Inside were his school friends, including the baseball team. Brad had been a catcher. Brad had also been a tutor at Jefferson School.
Angie, Brad’s girlfriend, had news. Donna isn’t sure if it was the day that Brad died or the next day. Angie told the family she was one-month pregnant.
Donna said her very first reaction was sadness in knowing this baby wouldn’t have a father. But then there was a happier thought: “We will have a part of Brad to hold onto.”
Bad News
Donna was told the man who caused the crash was a Mexican illegally living in the United States. He had no license, no health insurance or car insurance.
Donna had been assured by a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol that Garcia wouldn’t be released from the hospital without being arrested. It was expected Garcia, who turned 20 on the day of Brad’s funeral, would be in the hospital for a month.
Donna’s son heard a rumor that Garcia was no longer at St. Louis University Hospital. Upset, Donna called the trooper who told her that wasn’t possible.
He called back later with his deepest apologies.
Donna believes Garcia’s parents heard about the crash and immediately flew from Mexico. Despite having broken bones, his parents took him from the hospital and he has not been seen since.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol and FBI are working together to find Garcia. He’s listed on Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff’s Department’s Most Wanted page.
Garcia is charged in Ste. Genevieve County with first-degree involuntary manslaughter, operating a vehicle without a valid license and operating a vehicle without insurance.
“It will be five years in April and he’s still out there,” Donna said. “… I don’t know how any parent can hide their child knowing that he killed another human being.”
She wants to know how they can live with themselves. She wants them to see pictures of her son and her son’s son.
Garcia had worked at the area Mexican restaurants. At the time, he was working at a restaurant in Ste. Genevieve, she said.
She said after Garcia disappeared, Park Hills Police searched a house where several restaurant employees lived. Garcia wasn’t there and there weren’t even any pictures of him.
It wasn’t until about two years later that Donna or her family even saw a picture of Garcia.
She said her daughter-in-law is a beautician and while talking about the crash, a client mentioned she had a picture of Garcia.
The woman gave a copy of the picture to the Lewis family. That picture has been posted on a Facebook account his sister, Rachael, created in October to help police find Garcia and justice for her brother’s death. There are 1,300 friends from all over the country.
“I know there is someone who knows where David Garcia is,” she said.
Anyone with information on Garcia’s whereabouts can call the highway patrol, or their local police department.
Keep going
Every year on his birthday and on the anniversary of Brad’s death, family and friends are invited to head to the cemetery for a balloon release.
For his family, memories of him are all around. There’s a bronze plaque at Wilson Rozier baseball field in Farmington and a scholarship in his name at the high school. There’s a cross at the accident site. An angel sits in his parent’s front yard, and inside the house, there’s a wall dedicated solely to Brad. Donna still has envelopes of sympathy cards and Angels of Hope from all over the country.
The family keeps Brad involved in holiday celebrations, weddings and graduations. “There’s always a chunk of your heart missing,” she said.
Donna will never stop talking or thinking about Brad because she doesn’t want anyone to forget. A day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t wipe away a tear for her son.
“He wasn’t an angel but you kind of forget all of those things,” she said.
The family knows they have to keep living and that is how Brad would want it. They each take it one day at a time.
She knows that their family, especially the four grandchildren, is what keeps them going — that and knowing there is a God.
“The love of our family is absolutely what’s held us together,” she said.
Angie is still part of the Lewis family and they see little Bradley several times a week.
dailyjournalonline.com/news/local/family-has-no-closure-after-five-years/article_3b785d16-7e14-5898-a3a2-b9455c93c395.html
www.sgcso.com/wanted_view.php?id=22
Thoughts? As of 1/17, 2018, Garcia is still listed on the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's Office website as their most wanted fugitive. I assume he's unfortunately still at large as of 1/17/2018 as well based on that, although I don't get why they haven't inserted that only known photo, which is better than nothing, into the picture.
In any case, this is an extremely tragic case- as is so many of these vehicular-related crime cases, but I felt more heartbroken than usual, all the more frustrating that appears Brad's family still hasn't received justice yet.
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