South Euclid woman sentenced

Kia Ferguson gets 18 years to life for crash that killed her daughter in 2019

Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Pat Condon sentenced a woman who admitted to intentionally causing a crash that killed her 10-year-old daughter to 18-years-to-life in prison.

Kia Ferguson, 38, pleaded guilty in June to charges of murder and attempted murder. On Jan. 25, 2019, a 2008 Chevrolet driven by Ferguson was struck by a UPS semi-truck and pushed down an embankment. The crash killed Ferguson’s 10-year-old daughter Ji Ferguson and sent her and her 6-year-old son to the hospital. The driver of the truck was uninjured in the crash.

The crash occurred on Interstate 90 between state Routes 306 and 615 in Mentor. Ferguson was indicted on charges by a Lake County grand jury in September 2019.

At the plea hearing, Ferguson waived her previous pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. By way of her plea agreement, her defense attorneys and prosecutors recommended a sentence of no greater than 20-years-to-life in prison.

Ferguson’s attorneys asked Condon to sentence Ferguson to the minimum —15 years to life. In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court, defense attorney Carlos Johnson and Fernando Mack said this case was Ferguson’s first involvement with the criminal justice system.

Her attorneys wrote in the memorandum that in the months before the crash, Ferguson was working in a high-pressure job and her mental wellness began to decrease. Things worsened when she was fired from the job, her attorneys wrote.

“She went on to experience low moods and increased inability to function at work, and as time went on, at home as well,” Johnson and Mack wrote.

As 2018 came to a close, Ferguson actively began searching for ways to harm herself, which culminated in the crash, her attorneys wrote.

“While there is some disagreement among healthcare professionals who evaluated Ferguson about whether she was legally sane at the time of the offense, there is no question she had a mental health crisis in January of last year,” they stated in the memorandum. “The physiological reports all contain the opinion that at the time of the offense, Ferguson was in the grip of a major depressive episode. (That) alone is not a defense to the offense, but this court can certainly consider the mitigatory effect of a serious mental health issue.”

Lake County prosecutors said that on the night of the incident, Ferguson was at a turnaround in the area of the crash hours prior. A Kirtland Hills police officer spoke with her and she told him that she was having tire troubles.

The officer told her to leave the turnaround and go to a nearby BP station to get help. Prosecutors said the officer would have testified at trial that he saw her leave the turnaround without any apparent car issues.

Ferguson later returned to the area, where she eventually exited the turnaround with her lights off, drove across two lanes of traffic, timing it to be struck by the semi-truck, according to prosecutors.