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Jury selection starts in Ron Killings case



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By: LISA MARCHESONI, Post Senior Writer
Posted: Sunday, February 7, 2010 6:50 am
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Jury selection starts in Ron Killings case | Ron Killings

Ron Killings sits in a Rutherford County courtroom with his lawyer during a pretrial motion.
Fate of a former sheriff’s detective charged with killing an 11-year-old girl in a automobile accident will rest with 12 Hamilton County jurors.

Former Sgt. Ron Killings faces trial Monday for reckless homicide of Lakeisha White of Hopkinsville, Ky., who was visiting relatives when killed at 8:45 p.m. July 17, 2008 on Bradyville Pike. Reckless homicide is defined as the reckless killing of another. The range of punishment is two to 12 years.

At the time of the crash, Murfreesboro Police said the investigation showed Lakeisha darted out in front of Killings who was en route to back up another detective on a burglary call. He did not have emergency lights or siren activated.

Because of pre-trial publicity, Circuit Court Judge David Bragg agreed to select a jury from Hamilton County.

Bragg, the prosecutor, defense attorneys, clerks and sheriff’s deputies will travel to Chattanooga where jury selection begins Monday. Once the jury of 12 and two alternates is selected, deputies will transport the jurors to Murfreesboro for opening statements and testimony set to begin Tuesday morning.

Because District Attorney William Whitesell’s office worked with Killings on his cases, the family asked for a special prosecutor. Former DA Joe Baugh of Franklin was appointed to prosecute the case.

During a pretrial hearing, Baugh said the report showed Killings’ vehicle traveled at 71 mph two seconds before his vehicle struck Lakeisha. The speed was 62.8 when the air bag deployed.

Killings was also indicted on charges of a tampering with evidence by concealing liquor bottles so the containers would not be available as evidence. In the false report charge, the indictment accused Killings of giving a false statement to Murfreesboro Police.

Those cases will be tried separately.

Baugh repeatedly said Killings was negligent when he disposed of the bottles instead of treating Lakeisha, who died later that night at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

One of the bottles contained a receipt linked to Killings.

But defense attorney Terry Fann said the prosecution didn’t have any witnesses to show Killings failed to aid the girl, causing her death.

The investigation has been controversial from the outset.

• While officers were investigating, witnesses told police Killings disposed of a bottle of alcohol just after the crash but investigators did not take the bottle as evidence.

• Murfreesboro Police allowed Killings to leave the scene. A test of Killings’ blood showed no presence of alcohol.

Because of a lack of alcohol in Killings’ blood, Bragg ruled evidence about the alcohol is not permitted at the reckless homicide trial.

• Baugh asked the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s Critical Incident Crash Team to reconstruct the crash almost 15 months later. Because the street was improved since then, Fann argued to have the newest photographs kept from the jurors but Bragg denied his motion.

• In motions last week, Fann filed motions stating Killings was selectively prosecuted because he is black. Lakeisha was black. Fann reviewed 58 previous fatal crashes that didn’t involve alcohol showing only one person was prosecuted. Bragg, who reviewed the crashes, said the majority was not prosecuted because the offending driver died.

Lisa Marchesoni can be reached at 615-869-0814 or at lmarchesoni@murfreesboropost.com
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Member Opinions:
By: truthandjustice1 on 2/7/10
Tampering with evidence, YES. False statement, YES. Reckless homicide, NO.

By: cmsteach on 2/7/10
Agree. I am not sure why we are spending our time and money prosecuting this case. The family is also responsible for that little girl's death. Why are they not being held accountable?

By: PhilHarper on 2/8/10
Why was he driving 70 mph in a 30 mph zone?
Or will the evidence show either that he was driving the speed limit or was answering an emergency call?

Phil Harper
890-0904

By: truthandjustice1 on 2/8/10
He was backing up another Detective who had stop burglary suspects. But, he had from what I have understood exceeded the speed limit which is not uncommon for law enforcement to do to get to some calls that are not considered emergencies or not to alert suspects they are after.


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