Driver in Sept. crash charged with involuntary manslaughter

The driver in the single-vehicle crash that killed a Sedalia teen last fall was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Carl A. Hartley II, now 20, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Monday at his home, according to Sedalia Police Department reports. He was released from Pettis County Jail on a $5,000 bond, just after midnight Tuesday.

Hartley was charged Feb. 20 in Pettis County Circuit Court with involuntary manslaughter, a class C felony, and with being a visibly intoxicated minor. 

Hartley was the driver of a car that crashed Sept. 7, 2008, on a curve on state Route M. Santiono Watkins, 18, was thrown from the vehicle and died from his injuries. 

Trooper Larry Nelson reported in his probable cause statement that the car had rolled over and came to rest on its top. 

“I observed that the crash scene stretched for more than 500 feet,” according to Nelson’s statement. “Skid marks suggested that the vehicle had failed to completely negotiate a left-hand curve.”

Nelson could smell a “faint odor of intoxicants” when he spoke with Hartley. A blood test showed a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.039, over the limit for drivers younger than 21. In Missouri, it is illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, but the BAC limit for drivers under the age of 21 is .02. 

A passenger in the car also gave Nelson a statement in which he stated Hartley was driving 135 mph before he lost control of the car, according to court documents.

A class C felony is punishable by a prison sentence of no more than seven years, upon conviction.