A hit-and-run driver who fled to Latvia after killing a ‘happy, bubbly’ boy as he walked home from school with his friends has been jailed for nearly ten years.
Aleksanders Dolars was driving at over 70mph in a 30mph zone when he mowed down football-mad Keaton Slater, 12.
Aleksanders fled to the Eastern European country immediately after the crash in Coventry, on the afternoon of June 14, 2024, and was finally extradited to Britain to face justice in August.
The 23-year-old admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for nine years and four months.
Dolars was ordered to appear in person following representations to the justice minister on behalf of Keaton’s family, after he tried to avoid attending the sentencing.
Warwick Crown Court heard Dolars was in the car with two male friends and a prostitute they had stopped to pick up not long before the crash.
He swerved in front of cars before he accelerated through traffic lights at up to 76mph, just as Keaton stepped off the pavement to cross the carriageway, the prosecution said.
The youngster’s view was compromised by traffic but, on spotting Aleksanders’ speeding BMW, he tried to run. However, Aleksanders was travelling too fast to stop and hit Keaton, projecting him into two parked cars, the court was told.
Dolars Aleksanders, 23, was finally extradited from Latvia over two years after the fatal crash
Michelle Healey, prosecuting, said that after the crash, someone in the car was heard to shout, ‘Go, go, go’.
Ms Healey said the car did not slow down but the speed increased, and the prostitute shouted to be let out. Aleksanders paused to let the woman out, then drove off to abandon the car.
In a heartbreaking victim impact statement read in court this afternoon, Keaton’s mother Louise Slater said: ‘There are no words that can properly describe the pain of losing a child. It is heartbreak that never leaves you.
‘I cannot understand how anyone could leave a child who had just been struck and not stop to help him. That knowledge has added another layer of pain to an already unbearable loss.
‘When Keaton walked out of our door that day, we expected him to come home. We never imagined that we were watching him leave for the last time.
‘It is not only Keaton who died that day. A part of all of us as a family died with him. Our lives changed forever, and nothing will ever be the same again.’
Keaton Slater, 12, described as a ‘happy, bubbly’ schoolboy who wanted to be a footballer
Keaton, described as a ‘happy, bubbly’ child with ambitions to become a footballer, died shortly after the collision at 4.30pm.
The car driven by Dolars was found abandoned more than six miles away about 20 minutes later.
Hundreds of people attended the youngster’s funeral at Coventry Cathedral in July 2024. It was sky-blue-themed in honour of Keaton’s love for Coventry City.
His father, Clint Slater, described the pain of losing his ‘best friend’ and said it was ‘really heartbreaking’ that the family would ‘never get to know what he’d grow up to be’.
Sentencing, Judge Kristina Montgomery, KC, told Aleksanders: ‘Your selfish and dangerous driving took his life and left his family to bear an irreparable loss.
‘Your fear of imprisonment did not excuse leaving Keaton behind.’
The judge said Dolars would spend two thirds of his sentence in prison, with the remaining time spent on licence.
Keaton’s parents said they were not satisfied with the tariff. Mrs Slater said: ‘It’s good to know he isn’t going to be able to be on the roads and do this to another family, but six years, I think he should have got longer because my baby only had 12 years on this planet.’
She also read out a letter Keaton had written to his future self on his first day at secondary school nine months before the collision in which he said he wanted to pass all of his GCSEs at the end of Year 11.
Keaton’s oldest brother Josh said the day of his sibling’s death was the day ‘everything came crashing down’, adding: ‘The pain never goes away or gets any easier.’
Sentencing Dolars, Judge Montgomery added: ‘Your selfish and dangerous driving took his life and left his family to face an unbearable loss.’
West Midlands Police said the force ‘worked tirelessly’ with the Crown Prosecution Service and National Crime Agency to bring about his arrest, helped by a new extradition agreement between the UK and Latvia.
Dolars, who has previous convictions for threatening behaviour and possession of a knife, was flown into Gatwick Airport in August and entered his guilty plea over Keaton’s death in September.
As well as the jail term, he was handed a 16-year driving ban.
