The family of a homeless woman, Ruby Butler, 64, who was hit and killed while crossing a street in unincorporated St. Petersburg said they're upset that a felony charge against one of the drivers for leaving the scene of a crash involving death was recently dropped by the Pinellas State Attorney's Office.

"I'm extremely upset about it," said Butler's niece, Cassandra Brown. "I'm shocked because he left the scene of the accident."

"Oh, I was livid," said Butler's brother, Robert Doyle. "I was wondering how in the heck can they do this?"

Bay News 9 is not identifying the teen because the charge was dropped, in accordance with our crime guidelines.

The accident happened at 10:30 p.m., on June 1, as Butler was pushing a cart across the median of 66th Street North near 42nd Avenue North, in unincorporated St. Petersburg, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report. Troopers said Butler was walking eastbound when she entered into the path of an 18-year-old driver who struck her cart and knocked the woman into the center lane, where she was run over and killed by a 51-year-old woman who was driving a pickup truck.

Initially, both drivers stopped but the teen left the scene after 4 minutes, according to surveillance video from a nearby laundromat. The video shows the teen pull his white car into the parking lot and walk into the road. The teen told troopers he removed Butler's cart and belongings from the street, while bystanders attended to the woman. The teen stayed at the scene until the ambulance arrived and then drove away, according to the report.

A witness told the first officer who arrived at the scene about the teen leaving and a Pinellas County Sheriff's deputy pulled him over a few blocks away. According to the report, the deputy asked the teen why he left and he responded that he, "does not have enough life experience and was not aware of the procedure." The teen explained he "saw everything being taken care of" and believed he was "not guilty of anything", according to the report.

FHP Sgt. Steve Gaskins said because that deputy stopped the teen troopers were able to identify him. The teen was arrested on Aug. 29, on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving death.

"The corporal has worked in combination and coordination with the State Attorney’s Office here in Pinellas and was given the direction to make appropriate charges as probable cause existed," Gaskins said. "Which in this case it did."

About three weeks later, on Sept. 22, the Pinellas State Attorney's Office dropped that felony charge against the teen stating 'circumstances revealed do not warrant prosecution at this time'. Assistant State Attorney Doneen Loar tells Bay News 9 that the teen was not at fault in the crash.

"The State Attorney's Office made a determination that the defendant had no criminal intent to leave the scene," she said. "There was no indication he was trying to avoid detection or be evasive." 

Butler's family said they wished prosecutors would've kept them updated on the case.

"My biggest complaint was that they never kept us in the loop," Doyle said. "My goal isn't to go after him and put him in jail. My goal is to be treated fairly and justice be done."

The teen's attorney, Sean McQuaid, said his client stopped, rendered aid and only left because he wasn't sophisticated enough to know that he should've waited to give his information to law enforcement.

"He did not have the criminal intent to leave the scene. There's no motivation for him to have left the scene because there was nothing that he did wrong throughout the entire process," McQuaid said. "He wasn't trying to conceal his drinking or his drugs because he wasn't using them."

Troopers determined the teen was not driving impaired and was not speeding at the time. Butler was wearing a black shirt and was not using a crosswalk, according to the report. Troopers said there was light rain at the time and the roads were wet. For that reason both drivers were issued traffic citations for failing to use due care regarding special hazards. McQuaid said he plans to fight that ticket and weather reports show it was raining earlier that night but not at the time.

"We know it wasn't raining and we know he wasn't speeding," he said. "We know a woman was in the road, in a dark area, when she should not have been."

McQuaid said his client feels awful about the accident.

"He has been traumatized by this incident. His mother tells me regularly about the depression that he's undergone since," he said. "He's definitely apologetic and he's sorry for having been involved in this and perhaps being naive."

"How it ends up, is how it ends up," Doyle said. "But it's very frustrating."

The teen's traffic court hearing has been continued. The pickup truck driver has a court hearing scheduled for Monday on that uniform traffic ticket and because she remained at the scene the entire time, she did not receive any other charges.