Fatal crash juror speaks out: ‘I don’t think she’s guilty’

Just one day after a Columbia woman is sent to prison for a deadly wrong-way crash, one of the jurors who convicted her is speaking out, saying the jury made a mistake.

This jury convicted Kelli Smith last month of involuntary manslaughter for a crash that killed Thomas Sullivan in 2012.

And one juror, who didn’t want to be identified, said she’s regretted the decision ever since.

“I firmly do not believe she was guilty of being put in that situation on her own,” she said.

It was a controversial case from the start. The state said Smith was drunk when she drove the wrong way down I-70, hitting Thomas Sullivan head-on and killing him. But the defense said she was given the date rape drug and raped before the crash.

“It was very horrifying knowing the aspects of what might’ve happened to that girl beforehand,” she said. “Knowing she was found without her clothes on from the waist down really stuck out to me.”

She claimed Smith isn’t the one who should be held responsible.

“The person that had given her that date rape drug, I do believe they’re the ones responsible for that man’s death because they’re the ones that put her in that position,” she said.

ABC 17 News asked her why she agreed to a guilty conviction if she didn’t believe Smith was guilty.

“We had all this pressure on us to make a decision,” she said. “I think if we would’ve stayed in that room another 3 or 4 hours, we might have had a different outcome. Maybe not, but maybe so.”

The deliberations took a total of 13 hours and two days. She said most of the jury agreed Smith was not guilty when that left that first night at 2:30 a.m. But she said when they came back the next morning, an alternate juror was switched in, and people started changing their mind. She said despite instructions to start deliberations anew, she didn’t feel like they did.

“I wouldn’t have [convicted her] if I could do it all over again,” she said.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Nathan Carroz issued a statement after Wednesday’s sentencing saying, “I am thankful to the jurors for their dedication to fully reviewing the evidence in this matter. I feel that the jury made the correct decision with regard to both guilt and sentencing.”