Families Reach Out to Each Other in Court

Just moments after her nephew pleaded not guilty to felony charges of vehicular manslaughter, a weeping woman embraced the parents of the victim killed in the hit-and-run accident.

“We just want you to know . . . on behalf of his family we are very, very, very, very sorry,” said the woman, who identified herself as the aunt of Christopher Nathan Ringgold.

Ringgold is charged with running down Leslie Dawn Talley, 50, as she walked across Thompson Boulevard in Ventura last week.

Ringgold, a clean-cut 19-year-old from Ventura, stared at the floor and did not speak during his brief arraignment on felony charges of vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence and hit and run causing death. Ringgold’s bail was set at $10,000.

Other family members, including Ringgold’s sobbing mother, also hugged the victim’s father, Benjamin Talley, who had left a funeral reception for Leslie Talley at Arroyo Verde Park to attend the hearing.

“It was a very touching thing they did spontaneously,” said Talley’s father, who had journeyed from Portland, Ore., to bury his daughter. “They expressed deep concern for my daughter’s family . . . and they were so terribly sorry it happened.”

His daughter was crossing Thompson Boulevard near Ash Street on Thursday to take her two dogs on their customary evening walk when Ringgold allegedly slammed into her with his gray pickup.

Witnesses said the pickup’s driver shook the vehicle back and forth to dislodge the woman’s body from the hood and then drove away, leaving Talley lying crumpled, bleeding and unconscious in the street. Prosecutors said Ringgold ran over Talley after the collision as he fled the scene and that no skid marks were left in the street.

The following morning, Ringgold walked into Ventura police headquarters to report that his truck had been stolen. After hours of questioning, police said, Ringgold confessed that he was behind the wheel when his truck struck Talley, and he was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

Court records show that Ringgold was cited for five still pending traffic offenses in the last six months, including failure to stop at a crosswalk only five days before the accident.

But Talley’s father said he did not attend Tuesday’s hearing out of a desire for vengeance.

“Our desire and interest in the case is that he change his life and actions for the sake of his family and ours,” Talley said, his eyes moist, but his soft voice unwavering. “I hope he would turn his life around.”

Talley gave Ringgold’s mother a reassuring kiss on the cheek and pressed the program from his daughter’s funeral into her hand before she left, still crying softly.

His daughter had led a difficult life that included two failed marriages and health problems related to a serious traffic accident 10 years ago, but family members said she had been seizing control of her future in recent weeks.

Talley would have celebrated her 51st birthday the day after the accident and was looking forward to the birth of her first granddaughter in early December, her father said. She had lived in Ventura for more than 20 years. More than 100 people attended her funeral service at the Church of the Foothills.

But her father reiterated that he harbored no malice for Ringgold or his family.

“None of it was their fault,” he said. “We trust the justice system.”

Ringgold, a longtime Ventura resident who had worked at the Jiffy Lube three blocks from where the accident occurred for only about a week, faces a Nov. 4 preliminary hearing.

Public Defender Bryant Villagran said it is not unusual for the families of the victim and the accused to find solace in each other’s grief in vehicular manslaughter cases. Such emotions are often a recognition that “there but for the grace of God go I,” he said.

“Vehicular manslaughters are among the most troubling cases of all,” Villagran said. “The offender’s and the victim’s family are hurt by this thing. It’s the sort of thing that everybody recognizes is a tremendous tragedy for everybody.”