COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The third suspect was charged today in the death of Alexa Stakely, the woman who died after she tried to stop a carjacking to save her son from the backseat.
Gerald Dowling Jr., 19, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, grand theft of a motor vehicle and receiving stolen property. He is the only adult suspect of the three teenagers in custody for the death. Prosecutors said all three will be tried as adults.
According to court documents, all three suspects were initially facing murder charges; however, the indictment showed Dowling had his murder charge removed. The murder charges stand for the two 16-year-old suspects.
Dowling was arrested July 24, over a week after the initial incident July 11. Dowling was the last of the three to turn himself in to police.
Stakely, 29, was a speech pathologist in Canal Winchester schools and the mom of a 6-year-old boy. At the time of the incident, she was picking up her son from a babysitter's apartment. As a single mom, she worked a second job and arrived around 1:30 a.m. following her shift.
According to police, while the child was sleeping in the running car, Stakely returned to grab something from the apartment. Then, suspects entered the car and began to drive away, quickly followed by Stakely who tried to help her son. The car than hit her, resulting in a fatal head wound.
