Famous Heart Transplant Recipient Meets Ignominious End

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Two years ago, Anthony Tremayne Stokes made national headlines when he was refused a heart transplant in large part because he was a wayward teen, in constant trouble, and doctors did not believe he would follow the regimented protocol necessary for a full recovery.

At the time, he told any reporter who would listen that he had changed, that he wanted to graduate high school, attend college and eventually start his own computer business. All he needed, he promised in one interview, with SSB-TV, was a new heart and a second chance.

Amid public pressure, he received his heart transplant, on Aug. 20, 2014.

On Tuesday, police say, Stokes first robbed somebody. Then he hopped in a stolen car. When police spotted him, he led them on a chase, hitting a pedestrian and another vehicle. Then he crashed into a metal pole, and he was dead.

He was 17.

Roswell police spokesperson Lisa Holland said the pole he hit was a metal along S.R. 9/Alpharetta Highway at Hembree Road around 3:35 p.m.

Holland said police believe the teen’s crime spree began when a person “kicked in the door to a house” on Alpine Drive as the homeowner watched television. The homeowner ”believed she heard a gunshot and ran into her bedroom and called 911,” Holland stated.

The suspect fled the scene in a black Honda, which officers later spotted while on patrol. The car’s tag information was processed, and the car came back as stolen from Dunwoody, Holland said, adding that when officers tried to initiate a traffic stop, Stokes hit the gas.

According to an incident report released by the Georgia State Patrol, Stokes was traveling northbound on Alpharetta Highway in the Honda Accord when he “swerved to avoid the stop sticks deployed by (the) Roswell Police Department and started to lose control.”

The vehicle traveled through the center turn lane and into oncoming traffic. Stokes overcorrected the Accord and rotated clockwise through the intersection of Alpharetta Highway and Hembree Road, according to the trooper’s narrative.

While traveling through the intersection, the Accord’s front bumper hit the passenger side front bumper of a 2008 gold Chevrolet Impala. The Impala was traveling westbound on Hembree Road and waiting for the traffic signal to change.

After impact, the Accord continued northeast sideways and hit Clementina Hernandez, 33, of Roswell, who was standing on a concrete median in the roadway waiting to cross the road, according to the report.

“The impact sent the pedestrian airborne over the hood” of the Accord, the trooper wrote.

When Stokes struck Hernandez, the vehicle also hit the street’s crosswalk signals and then “traveled into the grass before hitting a Suntrust Bank sign with its drivers side and coming to an uncontrolled stop,” the report states.

Hernandez suffered “non-fatal” injuries to her lower extremities and was transported to North Fulton Hospital for treatment.

According to the report, Stokes was trapped inside the vehicle and had to be extricated from the Accord. The report said he was transported to North Fulton Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The driver of the Impala, Marjorie Ann Boley, 66, of Roswell, suffered no injuries.

Photo credit: Patch file