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Man Gets 24 Years For Role In Fatal Crash After Police Chase

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TBO.com

Published: January 12, 2009

CLEARWATER - A suspected drug dealer who hit a car last year while fleeing police, killing a mother of three, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Devonta Merriex, 20, of St. Petersburg, pleaded guilty to a range of charges Friday before Pinellas Circuit Judge Philip Federico meted out the punishment.

Merriex was convicted of third-degree murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving death and three counts of reckless driving involving serious bodily injury, said Assistant State Attorney Gregory Groger, who prosecuted the case.

On July 10, Merriex was fleeing from Pinellas Park police in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo when he ran a red light and hit a Ford Taurus. In the Taurus were Nachenga Robinson, 32, along with her three children and her father's girlfriend.

Minutes before the wreck, in the Park Place shopping mall, a passenger in the Monte Carlo identified by police as Rashane Barber had sold undercover police $140 worth of crack cocaine, Pinellas Park police have said. As roughly a dozen undercover narcotics detectives and SWAT team members swarmed upon the Monte Carlo, Merriex sped off and hit the Taurus two blocks from the shopping mall, Pinellas Park police have said.

Robinson had come with her father from Florence, S.C., so they could work a construction job at the Bartow power plan on Weedon Island, family members have said.

Pinellas Park police have maintained that they were not pursuing Merriex when the Monte Carlo collided with the Taurus. Pinellas Park's pursuit policy allows officers to chase a suspect only if the suspect has been involved in a violent felony, such as murder or rape. Selling crack cocaine does not qualify.

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