© 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Other

Trooper's attorneys want reckless homicide charges dropped

By AP/St. Louis Public Radio

Belleville, Ill. – Attorneys for an Illinois state trooper accused in a crash that killed two sisters on a Metro East freeway want the charges of reckless homicide and reckless driving dismissed.

Trooper Matt Mitchell's lawyers argue he isn't required to obey speed limit laws because he's a police officer and was acting in an emergency.

Prosecutors say "a person of ordinary intelligence" knows Mitchell broke the law.

Mitchell was driving more than 100 mph on Interstate 64 in 2007 while trying to get to an accident scene.

His patrol car veered into the path of an oncoming vehicle occupied by teenage sisters Jessica and Kelli Uhl of Collinsville. Both died at the scene.

Mitchell was using a cell phone and e-mail in the moments before the crash.

Other