A man involved in a crash that killed a nine-year-old child on Main Street on June 7, 2019, has pleaded guilty to vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident involving death.
Jason Orlando Ansley was sentenced to serve six years in prison for the death of Liam Haddock and two years probation.
Ryan Haddock and his two oldest sons were driving home when they were involved in the hit-and-run accident.
Liam died on a Sunday two days later. Mr. Haddock and his other son, Dexter, were injured.
Chattanooga police arrested Ansley after determining that he was traveling 62 mph in a 35 mph zone and he was caught on video running a red light at S. Orchard Knob Avenue just prior to the 9:08 p.m. crash.
Ansley appeared before Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz on Thursday. He approved the plea agreement.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Cameron Williams handled the case.
Family members at the time of Liam's death said of him:
Liam was an impatient boy, entering the world a full 11 weeks earlier than he was meant to. This worried quite a few people and has been widely regarded as a bad move. However, it would set the tone for the rest of his far-too-short life. He both entered and exited this world long before we were ready. But that should come as no surprise, as Liam was never in the habit of following the schedules of others.
Liam was an inquisitive boy, forever asking questions about even the littlest of things. And even when he would get the answers to those questions, they often weren't the answers he was looking for, so he would ask even more. Given time, Liam would have addressed every mystery of the universe, and the universe itself would have responded out of sheer respect for his persistence.
Liam was an impassioned boy, pursuing his interests with indescribable zeal. He was an evangelist for everything he loved, from science and superheroes to cheeky pop music and junk food. When he grew up, Liam wanted to be an astronaut and a rock star. He wanted to write comic books and build robots. And anyone who knows him knows he would have accomplished each of those objectives and still had time to squeeze in a couple hours of video games at the end of the day.
Liam was an impartial boy, treating every person he met as a friend and every friend as family. He didn't go anywhere without making a connection to someone. Sometimes that connection lasted a few minutes and never reached the name-swapping stage; other times it would last years and change the way his parents would define the word "family."
Finally, Liam was an impossible boy. At times, he was impossible to live with. He was impossible to keep clean. He was impossible to satisfy. However, he was also impossible to not love. And life feels like it will be impossible to live without him.
Liam Haddock