An emotional video showing the moment police charged a woman who hit and killed a child played in court on the third day of her trial.
Nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice was going to school on Sept. 9, 2021, pushing her scooter at a 33rd Street West crosswalk, when she was struck by Taylor Kennedy’s truck.
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Kennedy is charged with impaired driving — exceeding the prescribed blood-drug concentration of THC — causing death.
At the crash scene, Kennedy tells police she smoked marijuana and micro-dosed magic mushrooms the day before.
Kennedy’s admission prompts an oral-swab drug test at the scene.
While waiting for the drug test, Kennedy sits in a police SUV and makes small talk with Const. Blake Atkinson, who is standing outside the vehicle. They discuss food, reality TV and TikTok. The conversation was recorded by cameras equipped in the police vehicle.
After the drug test reads positive for THC, there’s a dramatic shift from the friendly conversation.
When Atkinson tells Kennedy she’s under arrest, she wails.
The screams, heard in the video, prompt some members of the gallery to leave the courtroom.
Kennedy pleads with Atkinson and offers to forfeit her license.
“Please just take my license … I didn’t do anything,” she says, with her voice trailing off, between screams.
“It was an accident, please!”
As the video played, Kennedy sat in the prisoner’s box, bent over, with her hands covering her ears.
After Atkinson reads Kennedy the charge, he tells her — for the first time — her rights, which include the ability to contact a lawyer.
It took 64 minutes for an officer to read Kennedy her rights from the time she was placed in the police vehicle, court heard.
An admissibility hearing, known as a voir dire, is underway to determine if the evidence can be used in the trial.
Judge Jane Marie Wootten is presiding over the proceedings. The trial has been adjourned to February, when more evidence will be called.
