SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff, Mo., man will spend the next four years in prison for his role in the December 2015 hit-and-run accident that killed a local teenager, Heavenly Grace Hafford.
Randel Craig Sparks, who preempted his August trial by pleading guilty to the Class D felonies of leaving the scene of a motor-vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence, was sentenced Friday morning by Judge David Jones in Greene County.
"The maximum he could have got was four and four, consecutive" on the charges, explained Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher. "... The state argued for four and four consecutive to go directly to prison.
"The defense (asked for) four and four concurrent and probation."
The judge, Oesterreicher said, sentenced Sparks to consecutive four-year prison sentences, but he suspended the execution of the second sentence on the tampering charge.
Oesterreicher said the 44-year-old is "going to prison" for four years on the leaving the scene charge, then he is "going to be placed on probation, probably for five years, on the tampering charge."
Should Sparks then violate his probation, the court has the power to revoke his probation and order the execution of his suspended sentence.
"Originally, I had offered three and three if he pleaded guilty," with the sentences to be served consecutively, Oesterreicher explained.
Sparks entered what Oesterreicher described as an "open plea."
At the time of his plea, Jones ordered a sentencing assessment report (SAR) be completed by Probation and Parole.
"After reading the (SAR), Randy Sparks minimized his role completely, so I then chose to go after the full four and four," Oesterreicher said.
In the SAR, according to Oesterreicher, Sparks said "he was not the one who killed Heavenly Hafford; it was other people.
"What I told the judge was using the three Rs. He had no regrets. He had no remorse, and he took no responsibility."
Oesterreicher said that was the reason he changed "what I was going to argue for the punishment and went for the maximum on both."
According to earlier reports, Hafford, 13, died of blunt-force trauma. She was struck by two vehicles at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 9, 2015, as she was crossing Kanell Boulevard near the Maud Street intersection.
The junior high student was walking home with a friend. She had been to Mansion Mall to buy shoes for an upcoming school choir recital.
The first vehicle, which allegedly struck the teen, was a rusty, light blue Volkswagen Beetle.
That vehicle was found shortly after the crash, and its driver, Sparks, who was destroying evidence on his vehicle, was arrested.
Authorities say a second vehicle traveling a short distance behind Sparks' vehicle also allegedly ran over Hafford and fled the scene.
That vehicle and driver subsequently were found and identified.
Benjamin Ressel, 40, was indicted on the Class D felonies of leaving the scene of a motor-vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence by a Butler County grand jury in February.
Ressel subsequently was granted a change of venue to Pemiscot County, where his attorneys argued for and were granted judgments of acquittal on his charges.