Suburban St. Louis man charged in crash death of pedestrian

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A suburban St. Louis man has been charged with several counts in the January death of a man police say died when he was run over in his own yard while the suspected driver was high on fentanyl.

Reginald Newtall, 40, of the Spanish Lake community in St. Louis County was charged Wednesday with DWI-death of another, driving with a revoked driver’s license and a drug count, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Police have said Newtall was driving a pickup truck on Jan. 4 when he hit and killed 53-year-old Vernon Jones. Investigators said Jones was fixing a mailbox in his yard when Newtall ran over him.

Newtall tested positive for fentanyl and admitted to taking the powerful opioid before the crash, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said in court documents.

Newtall also told investigators that a friend gave him pills to sell and that he had consumed at least one of the pills found in his vehicle, the patrol said. Court records show that Newtall has at least three convictions of driving on a revoked license over the past decade.

No lawyer was listed for Newtall in online court records on Friday morning.