Woman Indicted in Vehicular Homicide; Victim Was Former Basketball Standout

April 19, 2022 – A 19-year-old woman was indicted Tuesday on vehicular homicide charges stemming from an incident last year in which her car struck a house, killing a man inside whose body was not discovered until some four hours later, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A grand jury returned the indictment against Miracle Renee Rutherford, alleging that she drove recklessly and created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury. She remains free on $30,000 bond.

Investigators said the crash occurred around 2:45 a.m. on June 5, 2021, as Rutherford was driving at a high rate of speed southbound on Horn Lake Road toward Shelby Drive in southwest Memphis.

Her car crossed two northbound lanes, left the road, continued through a yard and went airborne, striking the corner of a frame house in the 4500 block of Horn Lake.

Police responded, but there were no injuries reported at the crash scene. A woman in the house told police she lived there with her adult son, but that he was not home.

Several hours later at daylight, other family members arrived to help remove furnishings and debris from the crash site and discovered the body of the son, 45-year-old Leslie Galen Young. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Young was a former basketball standout at Hillcrest High School and for the UNC-Charlotte 49ers where he was named MVP in the 1999 C-USA Tournament. He also played professionally for 13 years in the United States and abroad.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. J. D. Hamblen of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 5 which prosecutes cases in General Sessions Division 13 and in Criminal Court Division 9.