By Roger McKinney
Globe Staff Writer
COLUMBUS, Kan. —
Judge Robert Fleming on Wednesday ordered Kaston Hudgins bound over for trial on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths last year of Teresa Kemp, 41, and her daughter, Taylor Kemp, 13.
Both victims died of injuries they suffered when their car was struck by one driven by Hudgins, of Galena, who was being pursued by authorities.
Teresa Kemp, of Pittsburg, was a teacher in Riverton, and her daughter was a student there.
The murder charges are based on the alleged act of causing a death while committing or attempting a dangerous felony. A third charge on which Hudgins was bound over for trial, felony fleeing or attempting to elude police by engaging in reckless driving, is the dangerous felony.
The allegation is that a vehicle driven by Hudgins struck the rear of the vehicle driven by Teresa Kemp while Hudgins was being pursued by a Cherokee County sheriff’s patrol car on July 16, 2009. Taylor Kemp died at the scene of the crash, and Teresa Kemp died in a hospital the following week.
Stop sign violation
Cherokee County sheriff’s Deputy Dean Kidd testified during Wednesday’s preliminary hearing that he had positioned his patrol car at a weigh station just north of a highway intersection at Crestline, facing the intersection, about 9:15 p.m. that day.
He said he saw a vehicle driven by Hudgins run the stop sign at the intersection while headed north. Kidd said he turned on his emergency lights and siren, and pulled Hudgins over after a short distance. Before he got out of his patrol car, Kidd said, Hudgins took off in his vehicle, leading him on a high-speed chase. He said at one point he looked down at his speedometer, and he was going 120 mph. He said his emergency lights and siren were operating throughout the chase.
Kidd said Hudgins at times during the chase turned off his headlights, though it was dark outside.
Kidd said Hudgins twice during the pursuit went into the left lane of traffic, once narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with oncoming traffic. He said Hudgins passed another vehicle on the right, using the highway shoulder.
Throughout the chase, he said, he kept a distance of four to five car lengths between his patrol car and the Hudgins vehicle.
He said that when a dispatcher radioed him that deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department had deployed “stop sticks” at an intersection to deflate the tires on Hudgins’ vehicle, he slowed down and increased the distance between the vehicles to about a quarter-mile.
It was just south of the intersection south of Pittsburg where the Hudgins vehicle collided with the Kemp vehicle.
Kidd said he had considered calling off the pursuit but decided it was better to continue, because Hudgins presented too much of a danger to other drivers.
‘Spinning like a top’
Paul Coyler testified that he witnessed the crash while he was stopped at the intersection, facing east. He said a Crawford County sheriff’s truck was at the intersection, and he was unsure how to proceed. Looking to the south, he said, he saw the flashing lights of a patrol car approaching in the distance.
Coyler said it wasn’t until a little later that he spotted Hudgins’ car in front of the patrol car.
“The rate of speed had to be 100 miles an hour or more,” Coyler said. “There was no attempt to stop.”
He said he thought the Kemp vehicle was traveling between 5 and 15 mph as it approached the stop sign when the other vehicle struck it. He said the Kemp vehicle became airborne.
“It went end-over-end,” he said.
Matt Derfelt and his wife, Heather, of Carl Junction, Mo., also testified about what they saw from their perspective in the westernmost southbound lane of U.S. Highway 69. Matt Derfelt said a police vehicle had pulled into the intersection. He said that farther south on the highway, he saw the outline of a vehicle, with its lights off, being pursued by a patrol car.
“I saw the vehicle coming at a high rate of speed in front of the police vehicle,” Matt Derfelt said. Then he saw the crash.
“It was propelled forward, spinning like a top,” he said of the Kemp vehicle. “It appeared to lift up on its nose and spin across the intersection.”
Derfelt, a nurse, said he offered medical assistance at the scene.
Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Jerry Daniels, who performed a crash reconstruction, estimated Hudgins’ speed at the point of impact at 98 mph. The Kemp vehicle was going between 0 and 5 mph, he said.
Correct charge?
Hudgins’ attorney, Sam Marsh, introduced evidence that Hudgins had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent, with 0.08 being the legal limit. Marsh argued that the more specific, and therefore more appropriate, charge would be involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
“We’re not saying he shouldn’t be bound over, we’re saying he shouldn’t be bound over for felony murder,” Marsh said.
Fleming disagreed with Marsh and sided with assistant Kansas Attorney General Barry Disney, who is prosecuting the case.
Disney filed an amended complaint Wednesday, dropping charges including possession of stolen property, driving under the influence of alcohol and traffic infractions.
Examination
Kaston Hudgins was found competent to stand trial at a hearing last month.
