A 17-year-old motorist who hit and killed a pedestrian in St. Paul this spring will not be tried as an adult and is expected to be sentenced to juvenile probation.

After a hearing in Ramsey County District Court last week, Judge Teresa Warner ruled that Johnathan Yang’s case could be sufficiently handled by the juvenile system given his otherwise clean record and the availability of its programming to meet his needs while ensuring public safety.

Yang pleaded guilty to a criminal vehicular homicide charge. He’s expected to receive a 48-month stayed adult sentence at a coming hearing, meaning he’ll have to serve that time only if he fails to abide by the terms of juvenile probation.

“After reviewing two court-ordered evaluations of (Yang), the defense and prosecution agreed that … (this) … was the best resolution to this tragic situation,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

Yang will remain on juvenile supervision until his 21st birthday.

The mother of the 22-year-old woman killed in the crash — Taressa Diana Wilson-Snyder — is angry over the outcome. In addition to probation, Sarah Wilson said, the only other consequence Yang received after killing her daughter was losing his driver’s license.

“If he is a good kid and has a halo over his head for these next few years, he ain’t getting nothing,” Wilson said. “To me that is bogus and if the judge doesn’t see that, then she is bogus, too.”

Neither Yang’s attorney, Kevin Sieben, nor his parents could be immediately reached for comment.

Officers who responded to the crash scene at Maryland Avenue and Desoto Street around 2:30 a.m. March 16 found Wilson-Snyder unconscious and lying on her back in the street with several people gathered around her.

She was taken to Regions Hospital in critical condition and died that evening.

No one at the scene knew her or saw what happened, but officers found tire marks nearby and noted several pieces of what appeared to be “burnt orange” plastic pieces from a vehicle.

They used the fragments to put together a vehicle description and asked the public via media to call in with any information about the crash.

Investigators were led to Yang after the owner of an auto shop in Maplewood called police to say that he saw news of the hit-and-run and was concerned that a vehicle he was asked to repair hours after the collision may have been involved.

Officers eventually determined that the vehicle belonged to Yang’s father.

Days later, Yang and his father agreed to speak with officers at police headquarters, where Yang admitted his involvement in the fatal crash after initially trying to deny it.

He said it was dark when he was returning from a friend’s house that night and didn’t see Wilson-Snyder, who he said was wearing black at the time.

He fled because he panicked, according to his statements to police.

The Ramsey County medical examiner determined Wilson-Snyder died of complications from multiple traumatic injuries.

Her mother said this week that Yang tried to evade responsibility again at his plea hearing, first saying he didn’t know he hit a person before prosecutors reminded him of his earlier statement to law enforcement.

Yang also admitted at the hearing to trying to repair the car after the crash so no one would know it had been involved in an accident, Wilson said.

Months later, Wilson says she still doesn’t understand what happened that early morning.

“Everyone else driving around saw her. Nobody else hit her. But that kid did,” Wilson said.

Wilson-Snyder was the mother of a 5-year-old girl, who turned 6 on Wednesday. Everyone who knew her loved her, Wilson said.

“She was a good person with a good heart and a good spirit,” Wilson said. She added that her heart is one part of her daughter that will live on because Wilson-Synder donated her organs.

She said she hopes to someday meet the woman who received it.

“I would love that, just to know that my daughter is keeping them alive, and they are keeping her alive,” Wilson said.

Living without her has “shattered” Wilson’s world, she said.

“But this kid still has his mom, and his mom still has him, but I don’t have (Taressa),” Wilson continued. “Her daughter doesn’t have her.”