GUILTY TN - Kayla Smith, 13, killed in DUI crash, Stewart County, 5 May 2004

May 5 car wreck could result in vehicular homicide charges.
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stories/20040515/localnews/427061
.html

A 17-year-old Dover boy could face a vehicular homicide charge in
connection with a May 5 car crash in Stewart County that killed a
young Dover girl.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Kenny Harrison said he will present
evidence to the Stewart County District Attorney next week that the
juvenile was criminally responsible for the 1:40 a.m. single-car
crash on Indian Mound Road.

The Leaf-Chronicle does not name juvenile suspects.

The victim, Kayla Lynn Smith, 13, died on the way to Gateway Medical
Center. The driver of the vehicle was airlifted to Vanderbilt
University Medical Center and released two days later, Harrison said.

Passenger Christopher Pierce, 25, also of Dover, refused medical
treatment and was booked into Stewart County Jail after the wreck on
charges of DUI for allowing the juvenile to drive while intoxicated,
two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and driving
on a suspended license -- for driving earlier in the evening.

Harrison said Pierce passed field sobriety tests given after the
crash.

Harrison said the juvenile suspect's blood alcohol test will be
available within 30 days. The boy could instead be charged with
aggravated assault with a vehicle, Harrison said.

Charges would most likely come down from the grand jury sometime in
the next couple of months, he said.

Smith, who was an eighth-grade cheerleader at North Stewart
Elementary School, was ejected from the Chevrolet Malibu's backseat
when the car crashed into a tree about 300 feet from the road.
Harrison said the car was traveling at 93 mph when the driver lost
control as they approached the intersection near Commissary Hollow
and Greenbrier roads.

"I think the airbags probably saved their lives," Harrison said of
the men. None of the car's occupants were wearing their seat belts.

Circumstances leading up to the crash remain vague, though Harrison
said he knows they were taking Kayla home when the crash happened.

Investigators were not certain who was driving the car at the time of
the crash, though the juvenile has since admitted to driving the
vehicle. No one witnessed the crash in rural Stewart County. Harrison
said a man who arrived at the scene before emergency personnel did
hear Pierce and the juvenile arguing about who was driving.

"There was a lot of different twists and turns in the crash,"
Harrison said of the investigation

From July 2006:

http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/2006/piercec072606.pdf

A Stewart County Circuit Court jury convicted the appellant, Christopher R. Pierce, of one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and one count of aiding and abetting driving under the influence (DUI).

The trial court merged the DUI conviction into the vehicular homicide conviction and sentenced the appellant to concurrent sentences of twelve years for vehicular homicide and eleven months, twenty-nine days for each count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

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