Charges against teen accused of causing fatal crash maintained

A 17-year-old was bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court on second-degree murder and four other charges as the result of a Sterling Heights traffic crash that killed a woman and her fetus, and seriously injured her husband and young son.

Travion T.W. Smith of Detroit faces the murder charge and a charge of causing the death of a fetus, two counts of reckless driving causing serious impairment of a body function and first-degree fleeing and eluding police for the Aug. 12 crash that killed Faith Gumma, 31, and her unborn child, and injured her husband, Norman, then 34, and Elijah, then 2, at Van Dyke Avenue and Metropolitan Parkway. Following the wreck, Smith fled from police.

The second-degree murder charge is punishable by up to life in prison while the reckless driving charges are punishable by up to 15 years and the fleeing charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

His bind over to circuit court followed a Jan. 16 preliminary examination in front of Judge Annemarie Lepore of 41A District Court in Sterling Heights.

Smith, who was 16 at the time of the incident, is being held at the county Juvenile Justice Center.

He is currently being treated legally as an adult but could seek to resolve the case as a juvenile since he was under 18.

He was arraigned in circuit court Wednesday morning by Judge Edward Servitto and faces a Feb. 28 pretrial. The incident occurred after police officers attempted to pull Smith over as he was driving a tan Chevrolet Equinox on eastbound 15 Mile Road near Van Dyke due to the vehicle’s left-turn being activated for nearly a mile. In the process, officers discovered the vehicle was not insured.

Smith was allegedly driving about 93 mph and drove through two red traffic lights while heading north on Van Dyke before crashing into the Gumma’s GMC Terrain at Metropolitan Parkway, according to Assistant Macomb Prosecutor Steve Fox. The incident was captured on video.

Norman Gumma suffered a head injury. He was staying at Rainbow Rehabilitation Center in Farmington Hills and on Jan. 4 was admitted to the Rehab Institute of Michigan, an affiliate of the Detroit Medical Center, at the main campus in Detroit, according to a gofundme.com page for the Gumma family that has raised $289,000.

“Please continue to pray, stay positive, and visit him to lift his spirits,” the page says in a Jan. 5 post.