2 crashes, 9 days apart, and 1 murder charge
McKenzie Gilbert had just earned her biology degree at Humboldt State University and was back home in Santa Cruz where her family was planning to celebrate her 24th birthday and graduation this month. Now, they’re planning her funeral.
Kelsey Anne Knoll had just crashed a Mercedes through a CVS storefront in Felton and was back on the streets nine days later when prosecutors say she got behind the wheel of an SUV and inexplicably ran down Gilbert on Friday afternoon as she walked down a neighborhood street a block from her Santa Cruz home. Now, Knoll is facing murder charges.
The tragic collision of the two young women on extremely divergent paths left Gilbert’s family “in complete disbelief and distraught at the loss of McKenzie,” according to a statement the family released Tuesday. Her death has also shaken the community and left many asking how a woman with a history of drug and driving while impaired charges who was seemingly spiraling out of control was free in the first place.
“It’s pretty terrible,” Assistant District Attorney Johanna Schonfield said in an interview after Knoll, 24, appeared in court Tuesday to plead not-guilty to Gilbert’s murder. “This victim was completely innocent, a recent college graduate who was on her way walking home.”
“She was so excited to move back to Santa Cruz to be close to family and begin the next stage in life,” Gilbert’s family, who at-
tended the court hearing but asked for privacy, said in their statement. “Tragically her hopes and dreams were snatched away from her. We will miss her beyond what words can express.”
The family is planning funeral services at a church in Los Gatos next week.
While Gilbert was hitting the books earning her college degree, Knoll’s life was taking a darker turn.
Before this month Knoll had been arrested on drugrelated charges twice in 2015 and three times in 2017. In March 2017, Knoll pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance in jail, according to court documents.
On July 11, the California Highway Patrol arrested Knoll again at 1:22 a.m. on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs after she allegedly drove a Mercedes-Benz 230 at 12:40 a.m. into the glass doors of a CVS Pharmacy in the Felton Fair Shopping Center near her home.
“Due to her level of intoxication, she made an unsafe turning movement and collided with the doors of the CVS,” CHP officer Trista Drake said. She was checked at Dominican Hospital and then booked at Santa Cruz County Jail, Drake said.
Knoll was out of jail while that case was pending on July 20 when she got behind the wheel of a black Infiniti SUV and drove alone through the neighborhood near Natural Bridges State
Park in Santa Cruz.
About 3:25 p.m., authorities said, Gilbert was walking down the neighborhood’s Modesto Avenue near Sacramento Avenue about a block from her family home when Knoll drove down the street and swerved the car and struck her from behind. As Gilbert lay crumpled and dying in the street, the SUV came to a stop about 500 feet away with a deflated back-right tire and smashed front-left light and hood.
Mike Dillon, who lives less than a block away, was among the witnesses.
He told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that he was standing in his front yard when he heard “screeching, screaming” saw the SUV stop and the young woman inside step out and yell for someone to call 911. Dillon made the call, and went over to where Gilbert lay on her back with her face bloodied.
Four bystanders tried to revive her, but she died in the street.
Though there’s been no indication the two women knew each other, police and prosecutors say the deadly collision was no accident, based on statements of eyewitnesses and physical evidence that Schonfield would not detail.
“We’re confident it was an intentional act,” Schonfield said.
At Tuesday’s hearing in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, Knoll, wearing a red jail jumpsuit with her blonde hair pulled back, looked at the floor and sat still before entering her plea. Judge Timothy Volkmann ordered Knoll to return Aug. 16 to set a preliminary hearing date, appointed a public defender, Sarah Schumacher, to represent her and sent Knoll back to jail without bail.
It wasn’t clear if any of Knoll’s friends or family attended the hearing and they could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She faces 26 years to life in prison if she is convicted.
Among the questions swirling around the tragedy is whether Knoll got off too easy in her earlier brushes with the law before that fateful day. Schumacher suggested as much, lamenting the “general trend” under recent sentencing reform measures “of drug offenders spending less time in custody and having less and less consequences if they fail to comply.”
Gilbert’s mother, father, sisters, brother, stepfather, stepmother, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends are left groping for answers and gripped with sorrow.
Gilbert would have turned 24 on Monday and her family was planning a graduation party for her this weekend.
They recalled her as “a vivacious, passionate, fun, sincere, loving person” who enjoyed competitive horseback riding and music and who had completed a 220mile hike alone on the Pacific Coast Trail for her 20th birthday. he had been home just 10 days when she was killed, and her family agonized over the capriciousness of the tragedy that snuffed out her promising life.
“Please say prayers for McKenzie,” they said in their statement, “and hug the people you love.”