Ramon Chavez Rodriguez, the man who admitted to driving drunk and killing veteran St. Louis Police Officer David Lee, has officially been sentenced.
Rodriguez, 25, pleaded guilty back in October to DWI resulting in the death of a law enforcement officer, as well as driving without a license. The fatal crash happened in September 2024 on I-70 near Grand, where Officer Lee, 44, was responding to another accident. He later died from his injuries. Officer Lee had served with the department for 18 years.
According to court records, Rodriguez was intoxicated and had multiple drugs in his system at the time of the crash including cocaine, methamphetamine, and ketamine. It was also revealed that he was in the U.S. illegally and already on probation for a domestic assault case in St. Charles County. That probation has since been revoked.
Despite the circumstances, Rodriguez was sentenced to just 15 years. Prosecutors had pushed for the full sentence to run consecutively with the 7-year sentence from the assault case.
On behalf of The New Real STL News, we send our condolences to Officer Lee’s family, friends, and colleagues.
