KINGMAN – A Kingman teenager is being prosecuted as an adult and faces extensive potential prison time for a deadly traffic accident. A Mohave County Grand Jury handed up an indictment on Thursday, Aug. 3 charging Brady Shuffler, 16, with two counts of second-degree murder and four counts of aggravated assault.
The charges follow investigation of a high-speed April 13 traffic accident that claimed the lives of Tatum Meins, 17, and Sherene `Siri’ Walema, 15. Shuffler sustained serious injuries as did Cannon Cobanovich and Reilly Feil, both 16.
All five teenagers involved in the single vehicle rollover were student athletes attending Lee Williams High School.
The indictment further charges Shuffler with impairment-related counts as testing detected marijuana in his blood stream. A criminal damage count correlates to power poles destroyed when struck by the 2020 Dodge Charger Scat Pack Widebody operated by Shuffler.
A police report released following indictment indicates that Shuffler’s group had been at a popular Stockton Hill Road coffee store with other teenagers who occupied another vehicle. It said that both groups were returning to a home in the Rancho Santa Fe subdivision before the accident occurred.
Teenagers in the other vehicle told police that they were ahead of the Charger on Louise Avenue before it passed them “real fast”. They told officers they saw the Charger leave the roadway ahead of them.
A report submitted by officer Eric Urquijo said investigation calculated that Shuffler was speeding at an estimated 100.9 miles per hour in a 40 mile per hour speed zone when he lost control of the Charger as it zoomed ?through hills and depressions in the roadway before rolling multiple times and coming to rest, wheels up, on its top.
“The top of Vehicle #1 collided directly with two adjacent UniSource electric utility poles,” the report said. “The smaller of the two was sheered and splintered from its base.”
All four passengers were ejected during the rollover while Shuffler was pinned with his leg trapped by the vehicle. Shuffler was distraught on scene.
“He was screaming in pain and was yelling something to the effect he didn’t want to live and just wanted to die,” Urquijo’s narrative said. Police reports reveal that Shuffler’s father told an officer that his son told him he was driving at about 110 miles per hour at the time of the wreck.
Meins was dead at the scene and Walema died following transport to Kingman Regional Medical Center. All three boys were flown to Sunrise Medical Center in Las Vegas for treatment of their various, serious injuries.
Defense attorney Brad Rideout is retained to represent Shuffler.
“These charges are accusations, and my client is maintaining his innocence,” Rideout said.
Shuffler is directed to make his initial appearance at an Aug. 28 arraignment in Mohave County Superior Court.
Dave Hawkins
