Tennessee Parolee With 20 Convictions Charged in Fatal Nashville Stolen‑Truck Chase

Metropolitan Nashville police say 52‑year‑old Ray Eugene Padgett, a parolee with at least 20 prior convictions across five Tennessee counties, stole a Ford F‑250 from a Nashville car lot on March 20 and led officers on a brief pursuit that ended when he crossed into oncoming traffic and fatally struck 23‑year‑old driver Oluwalayomi Fadero. Investigators report Padgett first rammed the lot owner’s vehicle as he tried to recover the truck, then later rammed an unmarked police car before officers opted to track the stolen vehicle by helicopter and move in once it stopped. The chase lasted about five minutes and ended around 2:30 p.m., when the stolen truck hit Fadero’s Hyundai Elantra and shoved it roughly 100 yards into a ditch near the road where she lived; she was pronounced dead at the scene, while her dog survived and was returned to family. Padgett is jailed on $805,000 bond on charges including criminally negligent homicide, vehicular homicide by recklessness, felony reckless endangerment, attempted criminal homicide and driving on a revoked license, with additional charges expected for the alleged theft and earlier rammings. Fadero, an aspiring nurse weeks from completing an accelerated program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is being memorialized by classmates and in a GoFundMe that describes a "deep void" left for her family, as social media outrage focuses on why a long‑time repeat offender remained free on parole.