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• Jaywalking mom choses new trial in hit-and-run case
• Father: Ex-wife should take responsibility for child's death

The heartbreaking case of Raquel Nelson goes before the Georgia Court of Appeals Tuesday as her attorney argues she should never have been convicted in the jaywalking death of her four-year old son, A.J.

It began around 9 p.m. on April 10, 2010. Nelson was carrying a toddler, keeping an eye on her oldest daughter and holding A.J.’s hand as they got off a Cobb County Transit bus near her apartment on Austell Road.

It was dark and the closest crosswalks were each a half-mile away. So like other pedestrians who live that the apartment complex, she crossed the busy four-lane road. She and A.J. stopped in the median. But as they began to cross the other side of the busy road, A.J. pulled away and was killed by a hit-and-run driver.

The driver of that hit-and-run vehicle, Jerry Guy, was convicted and served six months in jail. Nelson was charged with second degree vehicular homicide, jaywalking and reckless conduct. She faced three years in jail.

Last July, a Cobb County jury convicted Nelson on all three counts. But during sentencing, Judge Katherine Tanksley gave Nelson the unusual option of 12-months’ probation or a completely new trial. Nelson chose to be retried.

“I’m optimistic,” she said back in October, after her attorney asked Judge Tanksley to throw out all three charges. Tanksley agreed to dismiss the reckless conduct charge, but let the other two stand.

“She didn’t do anything wrong,” said Nelson’s attorney, Steve Sadow. “So she shouldn’t be prosecuted for it.”

Sadow will argue that Nelson’s original trial verdict should be overturned. If the Court of Appeals agrees with him on that issue, then the matter will likely end there and then.