Driver charged with murder after 2 boys killed in Concord crash
OAKLAND (Henry Lee/KTVU) - The man accused of being behind the wheel in a Concord crash that killed two boys, 10 and 5, who had just seen Despicable Me 3 with their mother and baby brother, was charged with murder and DUI-related charges on Wednesday by the Contra Costa County District Attorney.
Those two counts are the latest and most serious charges facing Lemuel S. Wilson, 35, who has a long criminal history, including two DUIs and a recent arrest for allegedly making a criminal threat at Nordstrom in Pleasanton. He has not yet been arraigned in court as he remains hospitalized after the fatal Friday crash. His attorney, Dorian Peters, declined comment.
The brothers, Lorenzo and Vincent, were coming home to San Pablo on Friday about 11 p.m. with their mother, Aida Reyes, and baby brother, Luciano, when his silver 2004 Infiniti, traveling at a high rate of speed, missed a turn on the exit from Highway 4 to Solano Way and sped across a field to the adjacent on-ramp, slamming into the back of Reyes' 2006 Durango, said California Highway Patrol Officer Brandon Correia.
Wilson was also injured in the crash and at first, ran away, the CHP said. He then was arrested at Highland Hospital. His wife, Onika Wilson, who lost her daughter, Reggina Jeffries, last year when she was killed after dancing at a friend's funeral, told KTVU that Wilson turned himself in after seeing the tragedy reported on the news. Police, however, said that staff recognized him and notified authorities.
Wilson's priors, which go back to at least 2001 in Alameda County, are mostly for non-violent crimes, including forgery and two DUI convictions in 2011 and 2005, court records indicate. Those convictions especially deeply upset Reyes, which she spoke about passionately outside Children's Hospital on Monday night, asking for justice. "The way I feel right now, I wish I had perished," she said.
Wilson's most recent arrest before the crash was on suspicion of making a criminal threat.
On June 24, Wilson was arrested at Stoneridge Shopping Center after police said he and his brother had been inside Nordstrom threatening to kill staff with a gun, "causing them to fear for their lives," according to the charging document. One of the employees said Wilson pushed him and he wanted to have Wilson prosecuted. Wilson had a .40-caliber handgun bullet on his person, and an embossing machine used to imprint symbols on banks credit cards and a credit card scanning machine and "hundreds of credit cards" with his name on them in his car, police said.
Records show he entered a not guilty plea and in that case, his bail was reduced from $100,000 to $10,000. He bailed out Thursday. The fatal crash happened the next day. The bail for his latest murder charges was set at $2 million.
KTVU's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.