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Byers' Beat: CBC student dead, suspected hit-and-run driver released, what's next

Prosecutors want more evidence against a man who turned himself into police and was arrested for a crash that left a 17-year-old dead.

Byers' Beat is a weekly column written by the I-Team's Christine Byers, who has covered public safety in St. Louis for 15 years. It is intended to offer context and analysis to the week's biggest crime stories and public safety issues.

ST. LOUIS — Taken Under Advisement.

It’s a term prosecutors use when police bring them a case that they aren’t ready to issue. Police use it as a verb.

“They TUA’d it,” police sources told me Tuesday after investigators applied for charges against a 25-year-old man they believe is to blame for a fatal hit-and-run outside of Ted Drewes Frozen Custard.

The investigation has been a challenge since it began July 29, after 17-year-old Matthew Nikolai was struck and killed while crossing Chippewa.

He was struck twice. The first car was a pickup truck. The second was a sedan.

The driver of the pickup truck left the scene. The driver of the sedan stayed and cooperated with police. She hasn’t been charged and isn’t expected to be.

5 On Your Side is not naming the suspected pickup driver because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.

Police released grainy surveillance images of the truck to the media within days of the accident.

The strategy paid off, as sources familiar with the investigation told me an observant person at an auto body shop in St. Louis County called police to report someone had brought in a truck to get some front-end damage repaired that matched the pictures of the wanted vehicle.

Police canceled their search for the vehicle Aug. 4.

Then, Monday, a man investigators believe was driving the truck turned himself in after learning police were looking to arrest him on suspicion of leaving the scene of a fatal accident and evidence tampering, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Police then had 24 hours to hold him and make their case to prosecutors with St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s Office to file charges.

The man didn’t make any statements, telling police only that he knew they were looking for him, so he came to police headquarters, according to sources.

Then, just as that 24-hour deadline approached, prosecutors TUA’d the case, believing police didn’t have enough evidence to prove he was driving the car when it struck the rising CBC High School senior, according to sources.

The move stunned many, who wondered how Gardner's office didn't have enough to charge someone who turned themselves in -- but again, he didn't say anything to police about the case.

This situation reminds me of the red-light camera debate.

The courts ruled images of a car are not enough evidence to ticket a driver for running a light.

The government must prove the driver running the light is the one who is getting the ticket – not just the registered owner of the vehicle.

In this case, I’ve learned the 25-year-old man is not the registered owner of the pickup truck, according to sources. The vehicle belonged to a relative.

But police believe he is the one who brought it to the shop for repairs, according to the sources.

So, the case police brought to Gardner’s office included some circumstantial evidence – which her office typically does not favor.

However, I just covered a case in which one of her prosecutors, former municipal Judge Marvin Teer, got a first-degree murder conviction in a case that garnered national attention – the killing of retired St. Louis Police Capt. David Dorn. He was gunned down while trying to protect a friend’s pawn shop from looters during protests that followed the George Floyd’s killing in 2018.

And it was Teer’s first trial in over 20 years.

There was no forensic evidence connecting the killer to the scene. No murder weapon ever found. And only the word of two people who identified the suspect in surveillance images – but never actually saw him shoot Dorn.

RELATED: Jury finds man guilty of killing retired St. Louis police Captain David Dorn

Sources assure me investigators aren’t giving up on the Ted Drewes case, even though they don’t have surveillance footage showing their suspect striking the victim.

Prosecutors could have issued the charges based on the early evidence police have gathered so far in the investigation – and only continued to build the case as more came in.

That additional evidence could include swabbing the truck for any forensic evidence.

Searching cellphones, credit card receipts and everything else that comes along with backtracking a suspect’s steps before a tragedy.

A spokeswoman for Gardner’s office said prosecutors do not comment on pending cases, so it’s unclear why they asked police for more follow-up.

And when police go back to prosecutors, they won’t want it to be TUA’d again.

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