Hit and run suspect has deadly record; victim's family speaks out
E/C Annie
>From NBC12 News
Thursday, March 9, 2006
There's shocking information about the woman who police say allegedly
ran down a pedestrian in Richmond that has the victim's family upset.
Kelly Payne, 33, was arrested for hit and run, DUI and second-degree
murder this week after killing a pedestrian on Midlothian Turnpike.
Payne's driving record is a laundry list of offenses, including
multiple DUIs and she was convicted of the fatal hit-and-run of a 13
year old girl.
The news has prompted the victim's family and the group Mothers Against
Drunk Driving to come forward.
There's no fear in Payne's mug shot that may be because she has posed
for the booking photos on several occasions. In 1991 her record shows
arrests in Charlottesville for driving on a suspended license. Then in
Orange County she was pulled over for doing more than 20 miles over the
speed limit.
The third DUI arrest came in Albemarle county. That's when she was
declared a habitual offender.
Most shocking, in 2001 Payne killed a 13-year-old girl during another
hit and run accident in Tennessee. She completed a three-and-a-half
year sentence last October.
Carter Hill with Mothers Against Drunk Driving says he's seen the same
people commit these crimes over and over again and the law doesn't stop
them.
" Once the judge takes their drivers license, they just continue to
drive, it's just a big reflection on how they feel about the law,"
Hill said. "If you steal three cans of beer from the Seven-11, you go
to the penitentiary, you drive drunk three times, you don't necessarily
go to the penitentiary, in this state."
He would like to see a "three DUIs and you go to jail" law, but the
General Assembly has shot it down. He holds out hope there will be a
law in the future keeping people like Kelly Payne off of Virginia's
roads.
" I think these things should happen before it gets to that point,
either incarceration, education on why they shouldn't do it or
treatment," he said.
E/C Annie
Jackson ex-convict arrested in Va. fatality
Hit-and-run driver who killed local teen charged with murder in new
wreck
Just months removed from serving time for a 2001 hit-and-run that
killed a Madison County teenager, a former Jackson woman now faces
murder and other charges in connection with three hit-and-run incidents
in Virginia.
Kelly Dinelle Payne, 33, formerly of Jackson, was being held without
bond Wednesday in the Chesterfield County Jail, according to Virginia
law enforcement officials. Payne, who now lives in Richmond, Va., and
had previously lived in Virginia, has a history of DUI convictions in
the state and was declared a habitual motor offender more than a decade
ago.
Payne faces one count of second-degree murder and two counts of hit and
run stemming from a Tuesday accident in Richmond that claimed the life
of a 51-year-old man. She was also charged with one count of hit and
run and one count of DUI in connection with a separate accident the
same day in nearby Chesterfield County, Va.
Payne served three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty in
2002 to vehicular homicide and other charges in Madison County. The
July 2001 hit-and-run incident killed Elizabeth "Rose" Melton, 13, who
was walking near her home along Christmasville Road when Payne's car
struck her. Payne was released from prison in October, according to
WWBT Channel 12 television news in Richmond.
In the latest incidents in Virginia, the first accident happened just
before 4 p.m. Tuesday, when a white pickup truck driven by Payne struck
the rear of another vehicle on the Midlothian Turnpike in Richmond,
according to Richmond Police Detective Ron Brown. The driver of the
other vehicle received minor injuries.
But police say Payne fled the scene, crossing three lanes of traffic in
order to take the northbound entrance to Chippenham Parkway. In making
that sudden lane change, Payne drove up on the grassy area next to the
road and struck pedestrian Ashokkumar Muljibhai Patel, of Chesterfield
County, Va. He was standing approximately three feet away from the
street.
After striking Patel, Payne continued to the entrance ramp and was seen
heading north on Chippenham Parkway, police said. Patel was taken to
Chippenham Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7 p.m. Tuesday, a
day before his 52nd birthday.
Then at 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, the Chesterfield Police Department received
a call that there was a hit-and-run accident in the 500 block of Koger
Center, about five miles from where Patel was struck.
Chesterfield Police Capt. Hal Moser said that the department contacted
Richmond police after finding out that the vehicle matched the
description of the truck in the earlier hit-and-run accident.
"Officers found the vehicle, unoccupied, at the intersection of Le
Gordon Drive and Route 60," Moser said. They found Payne across the
street in a convenience store. She told them "that her vehicle had
broken down," Moser said.
Moser said that Payne was arrested and taken to the Chesterfield County
Jail. Moser said Payne's blood alcohol level was not being released.
Tennessee and Virginia's legal blood alcohol level for someone presumed
impaired by alcohol is .08.
It was unclear Wednesday whether Payne was licensed to drive.
Payne was arraigned Wednesday and is scheduled to appear in
Chesterfield County General District Court at 1 p.m. on May 25 on the
charges she is facing in that county. Richmond Police said no court
date had been set Wednesday for Payne on the charges she faces in
connection with the Richmond accident.
Payne has a troubling driving history.
In Virginia, she was convicted of driving while intoxicated as a third
offense in February 1992 and was declared a habitual motor offender in
March and April of 1992, according to Jackson Sun files. She also had
prior arrests in the state on charges ranging from making false
statements to police to assaulting a police officer.
In Madison County, she pleaded guilty in 2002 to vehicular homicide and
leaving the scene of an accident after hitting and killing Melton. She
struck Melton about 9 p.m. on July 29, 2001, on Christmasville Road as
Melton and a friend were about to cross the road.
Payne, who turned herself in to the sheriff's department at 3:30 a.m.
the next day, told officers she had two George Killian's beers before
the accident, according to Sun files. Her blood alcohol level was .07,
just slightly below the legal limit.
She was sentenced to five years in prison for vehicular homicide and
two years for leaving the scene of an accident, both sentences running
concurrently. A reckless driving and speeding charge were dropped after
a plea agreement was reached.
http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/NEWS01/603090308/1002