Vehicle Went Airborne, Crashed at Halls Ferry Circle

ST. LOUIS, MO (September 3, 2024) — Carlas Closson Jr., 31, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Domonique Hicks, 28, and her one-year-old daughter, Damonnie Hicks, on March 6, 2021, at the Halls Ferry Circle intersection in the city’s Baden neighborhood. After a bench trial August 14, 2024, before 22^nd Circuit Judge Clinton R. Wright, Closson was found not guilty of two counts of armed criminal action.

Shortly after midnight on March 6, Closson was driving Hicks’s 2006 PT Cruiser at a speed of more than 60 miles an hour in a 25 mile per hour zone on a stretch of road approaching the Riverview traffic circle. After failing to obey a stop sign, the vehicle hit a curb, became airborne and hit two trees in the center of the traffic circle. The collision caused the death of Hicks and her infant daughter, who was in an improperly buckled car seat in the back seat. Closson’s driver’s license was suspended at the time of the collision. Hicks’s relatives told police that she and Closson had recently ended a volatile relationship.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Circuit Attorneys Adam Field and Kerri Davis.

“We will continue to prosecute reckless drivers who choose to wreak havoc in our city to the fullest extent of the law,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore.  

Closson is scheduled to be sentenced on October 24, 2024.

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