The Missouri judge who freed a man accused of killing a mother and daughter in a horrific speeding accident previously worked for Soros-backed St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, whose refusal to prosecute crimes led to sky-rocketing crime rates in the city.
Judge Annette Llewellyn reportedly ignored warnings that the driver Monte Henderson, 22, was a “danger to the community” and released him on $20,000 bail.
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Surveillance footage released this week capture the moment Henderson’s Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed into Laticha Bracero, 42, and Alyssa Cordova, 21, killing them both. The pair had traveled to St. Louis from Chicago to attend a Drake concert on February 13. Bracero was pronounced dead at the scene, and Cordova died shortly after being rushed to hospital, police said.
Henderson is seen in the video running a red light at a high speed before plowing into the mother and daughter and slamming into another vehicle. Two teenage girls and a 61-year-old woman were also injured in the crash.
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According to police, Henderson was speeding at over 70mph when he tore through the intercession.
In the statement of probable cause, the St. Louis Police warned that Henderson is a “danger to the community” and is “not likely to appear voluntarily to a summons.”
Despite this, the judge reportedly allowed him to be freed on a $20,000 bail after someone posted ten percent of his $200,000 bond. Henderson is facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the deaths of Bracero and Alyssa Cordova. Henderson was also hospitalized after the crash. He reportedly has no prior felonies.
Llewellyn was Assistant circuit attorney from 2017-2018 during Kim Gardner’s rocky tenure. Gardner was forced to resign from office in May 2023.
After taking the bench in 2018, Llewellyn became known for making lenient rulings like her old boss.
“She previously faced backlash in her first year on the bench after sentencing a woman to only two years’ probation, despite one of her daughters fatally shooting their sibling when she left a loaded gun out and passed out on drugs,” the Daily Mail reported.
She was reportedly also heavily criticized for allowing a man accused of domestic assault against his wife out on 10 percent of a $20,000 bond in February 2022.
As a former public defender for criminals, Llewellyn once said that her past on the other side of the bench had made her appreciate Gardner’s “softer stance” on crime compared to her predecessors.
“What I had seen from this office was a sense of ‘us against them”’ she said. “That was the culture… It was prosecutors versus defense.”
In response to the charges, Henderson’s attorney said in a statement: “This is a very tragic accident, Monte is very upstanding young man; involved in academics and sports.”
Henderson’s victims, Bracero and Cordova, were reportedly known to travel to concerts together and were part of a “close, strong family”
“The family is extremely devastated by this horrific tragedy,’ the family said in a GoFundMe post. “The two were inseparable and shared a strong bond.”
St Louis Police Chief Robert Tracy told the St Louis Business Journal: “He’s going to be held accountable. He destroyed families, killed two people.”