OAK RIDGE MAN CONVICTED OF VEHICULAR HOMICIDE IN 2016 WRECK
A Knox County jury Wednesday convicted 27-year-old Ralpheal Cameron Coffey of Oak Ridge of multiple counts, including reckless homicide, in a May 2016 wreck that killed 27-year-old Kevin Bradley. Coffey’s cousin, 44-year-old Tommie Troupe of Knoxville, a passenger in Coffey’s vehicle, later died of his injuries.
Prosecutors had sought second-degree murder charges against Coffey in the case.
Coffey was convicted of two counts of reckless homicide, along with evading arrest, criminal impersonation, hunting/fishing/trapping without a license or stamp, refusing inspection, driving on a suspended license, two counts of evading arrest with risk of death or injury in a vehicle, and aggravated assault with a use or display of a deadly weapon. He was also convicted of Class-A felony possession with intent to sell cocaine in a drug-free school zone. Given Coffey’s prior cocaine convictions, the D.A.’s office said that count itself carries a 25- to 40-year prison sentence.
Authorities say Coffey was transporting cocaine when he led authorities on a high-speed chase that began in Anderson County, wove in and out of traffic and ended with the fatal crash at the intersection of Callahan Road and Central Avenue Pike that also badly injured 26-year-old Eric Kennedy, a passenger in Bradley’s truck.
Coffey will be sentenced February 22.