- Former Murfreesboro Police officer Ron Killings
In a car crash almost two years ago, Ron Killings ran over an eleven-year-old girl on Bradyville Pike, killing her. In February, a jury from out-of-town heard the case on charges of reckless homicide. Killings was acquitted.
But now, nearly four months after the homicide case and nearly two years after the incident in question, Killings has been cleared of the remaining felony charges of evidence tampering and filing a false report.
Killings who was on duty, en route to the site of another incident to render backup assistance, hit Lakeisha White of Hopkinsville, an eleven-year-old girl, who had wandered into the road. According to witnesses, instead of rendering immediate assistance to the girl, Killings got rid of one bottle of alcohol, possibly more. These same witnesses, who also collected the bottles and turned them over to authorities, allege that their claims were ignored by the Murfreesboro Police Department.
Judge David Bragg who presided over the criminal trial recused himself, and the remaining charges were handled by Rutherford County Judge Royce Taylor. According to Taylor “What Mr. Killings did after the crash is not relevant . . . it was not relevant what Mr. Killings had in the back of his car or what he did after the crash. What he did was not material.” Further, because there was “no criminal episode,” the evidence tampering and filing false report charges were unfounded.
Because according to Judge Baugh, “no witness had been sworn,” Killings’ dismissed felony charges of evidence tampering and filing a false report were dismissed without prejudice, a legal term meaning essentially that while the case is being dropped, Killings is not being judged either innocent or guilty, so the charges could be re-opened at any point.
The family of Lakeisha White believes that during the original trial under Judge Bragg, Killings lied under oath when asked indirectly if he had disposed of any evidence after the crash. White’s aunt Kim Coleman spoke about the original case and the subsequent dismissal.
“This is the worst thing in our families’ lives that we have ever been through. . . . In our book, they might think it’s over, but it’s not. I am working for my niece. . . . In our opinion, [Killings] should be charged fro the lie he told on that stand at the first trial. He sat right there and lied under oath.”
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