No prison time for former trooper in death of MSU athlete
A former Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper will not serve prison time after pleading guilty to manslaughter in connection with the May 2017 collision that killed Mississippi State University track and field athlete Kaelin Kersh and seriously injured two others.
Kersh's family members wiped away tears sitting in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court on Friday, as 31-year-old Kyle Lee pleaded guilty to the charge of culpable negligence - manslaughter.
Kersh, who was 22 years old at the time of the wreck at about 1:30 a.m. on May 7, 2017, was killed when Lee was responding to a call and driving up to 99 mph at the time without engaging his patrol vehicle's lights or siren.
The Starkville Daily News previously reported that Lee's SUV hit the Toyota Corolla at Highway 182 and Old Mayhew Road. Kersh was pronounced dead at the scene and two other occupants of the vehicle were treated for injuries.
After hearing the guilty plea, Circuit Judge Jim Kitchens sentenced Lee to 10
years in prison, with 10 years suspended and the first five years to be served under postrelease supervision.
He will be required to report monthly to the Mississippi Department of Corrections and will have to stay in the state of Mississippi.
Judge Kitchens also ordered Lee to pay a donation in the amount of $1,000 to the foundation set up in memory of Kersh at MSU.
Assistant District Attorney Marc Amos said in court that the Kersh family supported the sentencing for Lee.
NEW DETAILS EMERGE
When asked by Judge Kitchen to present the state's argument, Amos began to construct a timeline of events.
Amos says on the night of the incident, Lee received a call from a wrecker driver about a car stuck in a ditch at the intersection of Highway 182 and Sixteenth Section Road. While not an emergency call, facts related to Lee from the wrecker driver noted the driver of the wrecked vehicle was possibly intoxicated.
An investigation showed that Lee then responded to the wrecker call, headed east on Highway 182 headed toward the intersection of Old Mayhew Road. The intersection where he collided with the vehicle is directly across from Premier Ford-lincoln.
According to testimony, the accident Lee was responding to was less than two miles from this intersection and it was confirmed that Lee was driving extreme speeds up to 99 mph in an effort to get to the accident scene. What is likely to have also played a role in the crash was Lee's failure to engage his emergency lights and sirens.
The speed limit on that stretch of Highway 182 is 45 mph.
While Lee drove at a high rate of speed east on Highway 182, a Toyota Corolla driven by Noel Collier turned on to Old Mayhew Road and approached a stop sign with two other passengers in the car — one being Kersh, who was in the back seat alone. The group was leaving Cowbells, according to Lee's attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland.
Amos cited the facts of the investigation, saying Collier had been drinking but a toxicology report showed her blood alcohol content (BAC) to be .06, which is below the threshold for a DUI arrest, but enough to have potentially impaired her ability to drive.
Accident reconstructions determined that when Collier reached the stop sign at the intersection to cross Highway 182 to the median, she rolled through the stop sign and did not see Lee approaching and the car was struck as she crossed the eastbound lane.