Hit-and-run driver that killed 5-year-old in Warren sentenced to 20-40 years

A roadside memorial where Preston Singleton (inset) was hit and killed at Van Dyke near Steohenson.

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (FOX 2) - A 22-year-old guilty in the hit and run that killed a 5-year-old boy in Warren, has been sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in Macomb County Circuit Court.

Maurice Sumler was found guilty in the September, 2022 incident that killed 5-year-old Preston Singleton, who was crossing a street with members of his family. Sumler was guilty of second-degree murder, leaving the scene of an at-fault fatal accident and reckless driving causing death.

"The loss of such a young life is tragic," said Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido in a release.

On June 29, 2021, Sumler was driving on Van Dyke Ave near Stephenson in Warren where he sped through the intersection to beat a red light and struck the young boy. Preston, accompanied by his aunt, was crossing the road on his bike. Two of his young family members there to witness the crash.

Preston was on his bike, two of his young family members there to witness the traumatic incident.

"My niece Juliana is 10, who saw it, her own brother," said Rachel Draper, his aunt to FOX 2 last June. "My son and Preston's sister (saw it happen)."

"It's like a nightmare that I'm hoping to wake up from," said Christopher Singleton, Preston's dad.

Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told FOX 2 said Sumler didn't stop, ditching his Jeep in a Taco Bell parking lot at 16 Mile and Van Dyke. He was arrested by Warren police arrested Sumler, of Detroit, hours after the crash.

He admitted to hitting a child and fleeing because he was late for work at the Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights.

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Sumler's grandmother told FOX 2 he works hard, has a good heart, and that the family feels terrible about the crash. Eleanor Brown added that her grandson left the scene because he panicked.

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office originally charged Sumler with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

At the preliminary examination Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor Kumar Palepu requested the charge be increased to second-degree murder and Hon. Michael Chupa honored his request. Palepu took the case to a jury trial in front of Judge Diane Druzinski where Maurice Sumler was found guilty of second-degree murder.

"I don't feel that three meals and prison walls and a cement slab and a pillow is doing anything for my family or this situation," Draper said to FOX 2 at the time of Sumler's arrest. "Because my nephew will never see three meals a day again. My nephew will never have a cement slab to sleep on. That was his last cement slab right there."