A former University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) football player is being charged with murder. According to AL.com, Jordan Marktice Ricks, 28, is accused of killing a woman while feeling from a police traffic stop. The woman killed was Robyn Naftel Herring, a 42-year old UAB nurse practitioner and mother of two.
The accident happened last week. Police say officers stopped a man they say was Ricks in a Nissan Juke on I-65 in Alabama. The suspect was stopped for speeding, and when the officer returned to his patrol car to conduct a wanted person check, the suspect sped away. According to investigators, once the officer could catch up with the car, he came across the fatal crash that Ricks caused.
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The Juke slammed into a Jeep Wrangler, and Herring was the front-seat passenger. The male driver and the two children who were sitting in the back were unharmed. Herring was pronounced dead on the scene, and the suspect left the scene by fleeing on foot. Ricks was able to escape the large perimeter, and police are still actively searching for him.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Herring’s two daughters Katelyn and Abby. “We wanted, as a family, for a way to provide for her girls with any needs that may come about, or to start a fund for higher education,” Herring’s twin sister, Brandy Stewart, wrote on the GoFundMe page. “In lieu of flowers, we would love for you to donate for the girls’ future. Thank you again for the way that you have reached out to us during the unimaginable loss.”
“I still cannot believe she is gone,” Stewart continued. “Until we meet again…I will honor and cherish the gift of having her for 42 years and the legacies she has left behind in her precious daughters, Katelyn and Abby. Thank you for your support.”
It’s not clear how or when Ricks’ football career ended, but AL.com says that he battled multiple injuries. He played Homewood High School and then Wenonah High School and was the UAB player who recorded an emotional speech of teammate Tristian Henderson moments after UAB president Ray Watts told the team it ended the program.
“I just knew it needed to be recorded,” Ricks said to AL.com in 2017. “I didn’t know how significant it was at the time, but I just knew this was probably the last time I would be around my teammates, my brothers. We were close, and I didn’t want to miss the moment.”
