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December 25, 2025 8 mins

A teen is left paralyzed; his leg amputated after a city worker driving a garbage truck - crushes the kid on his way to class. But she won't spend a day behind bars for the double-run over devastation. 

A notorious thug blinds a granny in a savage Seattle attack. The career criminal was walking free due to major justice system failures. Plus, a burglary sends a mama bear on a collision course in Cali! Jennifer Gould reports. 

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Crime Alert.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm as Grace.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
A former garbage truck driver who paralyzes a teen after
recklessly reversing down a one way street gets no jail time.
Cecilia Davis Johnson, forty eight, driving for Buffalo, runs a
sixty thousand pound truck over a teen headed to school,
then goes forward, running over the teen again. The teen hospitalized,

(00:28):
has a leg amputated, and is now paralyzed waist down.
Jennifer Gould has the details.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Nancy, a former Buffalo Department of Public Works driver who
used a sixty thousand pound garbage truck to transform a
teen's life into a cycle of amputations and paralysis, will,
as you said, spend zero days in a jail cell.
Sassia Davis Johnson, forty eight, was sentenced to only three

(00:58):
years of probation in Buffalo, New York after a reckless
driving display that left eighteen year old Claw Ray permanently mangled.
She's very, very remorseful for what happened. Despite facing nearly
a year behind bars, the grandmother and former city employee
walked out of court with a mere license revocation and

(01:22):
a supervision order. The carnage unfolded on October second, twenty
twenty four, at approximately eight sixteen am, near the intersection
of Rhode Island and Fourteenth Streets. As children flooded the
sidewalks for school, Davis Johnson made the fatal decision to
throw her massive rig into reverse, barreling the wrong way

(01:45):
down a one way street. Clawray, then just seventeen and
heading to class, never stood a chance against the steel behemoth.
The impact was not a singular strike either. His attorney,
Charles Desmond, reveal the truck ran over the boy, pulled forward,
and then crushed his body a second time. The forensic

(02:08):
toll of the accident is staggering. Ray has remained hospitalized
for fourteen months, enduring more than thirty agonizing surgeries.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Claud He's not doing well. He's still hospitalized. He's been
hospitaled since the date of the incident.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
One leg has been amputated, and he remains paralyzed from
the waist down with no discharge date in sight. While
the defense argued the act was unintentional, the prosecution highlighted
a laundry list of negligence. Davis Johnson ignored a spotter
who stayed inside the cab and operated the vehicle despite

(02:49):
a broken and disabled backup camera. The judge acknowledge the
act was reckless but not intentional, granting a reduced please
deal that the victim's family reportedly consented to. While Davis
Johnson is no longer employed by the city, the Ray
family has filed a massive lawsuit against the City of Buffalo,

(03:13):
citing a total failure in training and equipment maintenance. For
the latest crime and Justice news, follow Crime Stories with
Nancy Grace on your favorite podcast app. You can also
watch Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Fox one and YouTube.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Nancy, Thanks Jennifer more Crime and Justice news. After this, A.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Seventy five year old granny has been left permanently blinded
and mutilated because a quote unquote notorious violent predator was
freed once again and allowed to roam on Seattle's streets.
The victim's angry sons, son Andreos Diricus, spoke to Komo.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
News like, oh yeah, he's unusual, like usual, what attacking people?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Seebelians Like, what the hell is wrong with your system?

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Jeanette Markin was standing on a downtown corner clutching a
food order after a routine errand when she was targeted
in a random stomach churning ambush. Forty two year old
Fallet Peya crept up behind the unsuspecting senior and swung
a heavy wooden board spiked with protruding screws and bolts.

(04:33):
He swung it with both hands like a baseball bat.
The savage impact shattered Markin's face, fracturing her skull, nose,
and cheekbone, while a jagged screw gouged out her right eye.
As Markin collapsed in a pool of blood outside the
King County Courthouse, surveillance footage captured her attacker just calmly

(04:56):
strolling away from the carnage. Horrified bystanders rushed to the
granny side, with one quick thinking witness snapping a photo
of the fleeing suspect that led to his immediate arrest
by a King County Sheriff's deputy. When Seattle police arrived
to take custody at Paya, the shock of the crime

(05:18):
was eclipsed by a damning admission of familiarity. In a
separate exchange with paramedic, An officer described on bodycam Paya
as a quote unquote regular who quote unquote usually punches,
adding with chilling nonchalants that quote. Today he decided to

(05:39):
escalate end quote. Paya's rap sheet is a road map
of judicial failure. In twenty twenty five alone, he was
booked into the King County Jail eight times for offenses
including assault, indecent exposure, and weapons charges, yet records show
not a single one of those those arrests resulted in

(06:02):
a felony charge before he allegedly blinded markin. His violent
streak dates back to a twenty eleven stabbing spree where
he knifed a victim eight times, yet served only eighteen
months of community custody. Charged with first degree assault with
a deadly weapon. Peya is now being held on a

(06:24):
one million dollar bond pending a mental evaluation, and finally
talk about a high octane home defense. A Sherman Oaks
mom took the term protective parent to a literal collision
course when she returned home to find masked burglars terrorizing
her family While her kids and their granny huddled inside

(06:46):
the house. The mother pulled into her driveway in a
Mercedes G wagon and slammed into the suspect's white Honda,
pinning the getaway driver inside. The impact sent to hooded
henchmen sprinting for their lives while that third one struggled
to crawl out of the wreckage. The woman's husband, who

(07:07):
did not want to be idd spoke to KTLA five news.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
If they can catch those guys, I'm one hundred percent sure.
It's not the first time.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Before the strike, the crew had disabled the home's surveillance system,
but they did not account for a mother's adrenaline rush.
While the thieves did take off LAPD investigators recovered crowbars,
walkie talkies, and ID from the smashed car, which will
hopefully lead to their capture. Proof of Mama Bear's instinct

(07:39):
can make all the difference. Nancy.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
For the latest crime injustice news, go to crime online
dot com and please join us for our daily podcast,
Crime Stories, where we do our best to find missing people,
especially children, and helped solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert,
I'm Nancy Grace six
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Nancy Grace

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