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Man Says Police Share Blame For Daughter's Auto Death

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By JAMIE ROGERS

News Channel 8

Published: July 19, 2008

  Nachenga Robinson

Nachenga Robinson was taking her three children and a friend of her father's to a Pinellas Park Wal-Mart when she was killed when her car was struck by a person police said was fleeing from an undercover drug sting.

A week after the 32-year-old Florence, S.C. resident's death, her father, James Robinson, is preparing to bury his daughter while trying to make sense of the entire situation.

Pinellas Park police said the speeding Monte Carlo carrying Devonta T. Merriex, 20, and Rashane Deangelo Barber, 21, wasn't being pursued by police when it crashed head-on into the driver's side of Robinson's car on July 10.

But James Robinson said police shouldn't have been conducting a controlled buy in the middle of a busy shopping district.

"I blame all of them," he said. "Why would you set up a drug sting in a middle of a shopping center on a six-lane avenue? You got all those theaters and restaurants there, and then talk about a drug deal gone bad. Drug dealers carry guns and they're gonna run."

And running from a crime you've committed is a selfish act in itself, Robinson said.

Police told The Tampa Tribune that it's not the department's policy to pursue nonviolent offenders.

Barber and Merriex left the scene of the fatal crash, police say, but were arrested a short time later.
Merriex is charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a wreck involving death and four counts of leaving the scene of a wreck involving serious injury in connection with the crash. Barber faces numerous drug charges in connection with the drug sting.

Final Words Are Lost

James Robinson said he still wonders what his daughter's final words were.

"She died right there at the scene," he said of his daughter. "She said a few words to her kids and that was it."

Nachenga Robinson's children — Eric, 13, Obadiah, 11 and I'on, 8 — were heavily sedated after the crash because of their injuries and were unable to recall their mother's exact words when he asked, he said.

All three are living in Florence with their maternal grandmother while they recover from their injuries.

Eric has numerous broken bones and can't stand on either of his legs, Robinson said.

Obadiah has broken legs and a broken arm.

"They are going to be taken (care of), but it's nothing like Chenga taking care of her children," he said. "She'll work 10 hours and when we'll come home, them children would jump on her. I used to have to run them off."

The fourth passenger who was in his daughter's car during the crash, Caroline Johnson, remains in intensive care, Robinson said.

"She's still in the hospital fighting for her life. She has internal injuries. (The impact) put her stomach in her chest," he said. "The doctor told me she wasn't supposed to live even an hour after the accident. People in that kind of accident don't even make it to the operating room."

'Sunshine' Is Gone

Robinson said he, his daughter and his granddaughter had been living just a few blocks from where she died.

Nachenga had been living in St. Petersburg since June when she, a welder, and her father, a pipe fitter, had taken a job in the city with the same company. The two had plans to ride their bikes together to work each day, he said.

"She said, 'Daddy, come go to Florida with me because I want to go down there and work,'" he said. "I told her I didn't like Florida but she said, 'I don't want to go down there with nobody but you.'"

On every job site, Nachenga was known as "Sunshine" because of her happy, pleasant personality, Robinson said. But now her family only has memories of her and questions about why she died.

"Her children say, 'Why us? Why did our mother have to die?'" he said.

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