Lisa Marchesoni
Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010 1:39 pm

Attorneys for a sheriff’s detective facing trial for reckless homicide of an 11-year-old girl filed motions stating his rights are being violated based on a review of 58 other fatalities.

Former sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Killings faces trial Feb. 8 for killing pedestrian Lakeisha White in a crash July 11, 2008 on Bradyville Pike. Prosecutor Joe Baugh said information from the vehicle showed Killings was driving 62 mph when the vehicle struck the girl.

In a pretrial motion, attorneys Terry Fann and Ben Parsley examined 58 fatal traffic crashes with no alcohol present during the past five years investigated by Murfreesboro Police and the Tennessee Highway Patrol in Rutherford County. Only one person, a woman, was prosecuted for reckless homicide in those crashes.

Fann and Parsley contend the prosecution of Killings, who is black, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions. Lakeisha was black.

Killings’ attorneys are expected to ask Circuit Court Judge David Bragg to dismiss the indictment against him during a motions hearing at 1 p.m. Monday. The motion was supposed to be heard Friday but dismissed because county offices closed at noon.

Also, Killings’ attorneys filed motions to exclude the testimony of THP Trooper Allen Brenneis’ who is a member of the Critical Incident Response Team, who investigated the crash months later and to exclude photographs of Bradyville Pike taken at the crash site since the street was improved.

Because of pretrial publicity, jurors will be chosen from Hamilton County Feb. 8 and transported to Rutherford County to hear the case.