SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff, Mo., man preempted his upcoming trial by pleading guilty Friday morning in connection to a December 2015 hit-and-run accident that killed a local teenager, Heavenly Grace Hafford.
Randel Craig Sparks, 43, pleaded guilty to the Class D felonies of leaving the scene of a motor-vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence before Judge David Jones in Greene County after Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher filed an amended information with the court.
"He pled guilty to both the leaving the scene and tampering with physical evidence; it's an open plea ... straight to the charges ... they'll do a SAR, sentencing assessment report," explained Oesterreicher, who indicated the amended information he filed cleared up some minor mistakes in the original information.
The amended information, he said, also charged Sparks as a prior offender in that Sparks had pleaded guilty to the Class B felony of first-degree assault in Dunklin County in May 2004.
That status, Oesterreicher said, would have taken punishment away from the jury, but "since he pled, it will not do anything for the sentence."
Oesterreicher said he and Sparks' attorney, Steve Lynxwiler with the Public Defender's Office, will argue what the punishment should be at sentencing.
"I did tell the judge, we had talked about three and three consecutive," Oesterreicher said.
Jones set sentencing for 11 a.m. Oct. 20.
Oesterreicher said Sparks' plea is the result of negotiations between he and Lynxwiler.
"Mr. Lynxwiler and I discussed the case; he just felt that was the best way to" resolve it, Oesterreicher said.
According to Lynxwiler, Oesterreicher made a three-year offer on each of the counts, but "he made a consecutive offer.
"After Randy and I talked, we felt it was best that he admit to what he did, and he certainly was willing to do that, then we'll hope for some leniency from the court. That's all we can do."
Lynxwiler said his client "didn't really explain," but he admitted to the court what he was guilty of.
"I will have to say he is the first to admit to that," said Lynxwiler, who described his client as being "very emotional through this whole process."
Lynxwiler said Sparks is "owning his action; he's saying: 'What I did was wrong.'"
Sparks, who was supposed to stand trial Monday in Greene County, pleaded guilty to his role in Hafford's death.
The 13-year-old 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 was believed to be a late model Ford F-150 pickup, described as a 4x4 crew cab, with four doors and a short bed and "bright white headlights."
Officers impounded the suspected truck Dec. 15, 2015, after reportedly locating it on a business parking lot in Poplar Bluff.
The truck's owner, Benjamin J. Ressel, a then prominent, local businessman, was arrested.
Investigators found what earlier was described as suspected "biological material" on the undercarriage of Ressel's truck.
Ressel, 40, is charged with the Class D felonies of leaving the scene of a motor-vehicle accident and tampering with physical evidence, having been indicted in February by a Butler County grand jury. He subsequently was granted a change of venue to Pemiscot County.
Ressel's case is set for a bench trial Sept. 11 before Circuit Judge Fred Copeland.