PARSONS, Kan —
Kaston Hudgins was sentenced Thursday to two life terms for the 2009 traffic deaths of mother and daughter Teresa and Taylor Kemp.
District Judge Robert Fleming ordered that the sentences be served concurrently — together — rather than consecutively — one after the other. Hudgins will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. He was credited with nearly three years he already has spent in jail.
Hudgins, 25, of Galena, was being pursued by a patrol car on July 16, 2009, when his car struck a vehicle containing Teresa and Taylor Kemp at a highway intersection south of Pittsburg. Teresa Kemp, 41, survived a few days in a hospital, but Taylor Kemp, 13, was declared dead at the scene. Teresa Kemp was a teacher in Riverton, and Taylor Kemp was a student there. They lived in Pittsburg.
A jury convicted Hudgins on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of fleeing police at the end of his criminal trial in March in Columbus.
‘JOY IS GONE’
John Kemp, husband of Teresa Kemp and father of Taylor, said during the sentencing hearing that even good days now are bittersweet. A football coach at Pittsburg State University, he said he couldn’t fully enjoy the football team’s national championship last winter.
“During the playoffs, I saw the schedule, and the championship game would be in Alabama on Taylor’s 16th birthday,” he said.
He said that rather than joining the celebration, he just went to the locker room after the game.
Kemp said he wasn’t angry, but he was upset.
Christina Leggett, Teresa Kemp’s sister and Taylor’s aunt, made a tearful statement. She said her sister was more than her sister, she was her best friend. Taylor was more than a niece to her, she said.
She said every day is a struggle because they’re not in her life. She described how she felt when Teresa Kemp died.
“I was broken,” she said. “I was lost. I was destroyed. I was speechless. I didn’t know how I was going to take another breath.”
Sue Farris, Teresa Kemp’s mother and Taylor’s grandmother, said holidays and family gatherings will never be the same.
“Our family’s incomplete,” she said. “The joy is gone.”
All three said they thought consecutive sentences would better serve justice in the case. Prosecutor Barry Disney also asked for consecutive life sentences.
‘MESSED-UP KID’
Hudgins’ mother, Viola Baker, described how Hudgins grew up in households where drug and alcohol use was the norm. She said Hudgins’ father and two of his uncles were murdered. Hudgins was removed from her home on more than one occasion because of her own drug and alcohol abuse, she said.
“He didn’t have no family,” she said. “He was just a messed-up kid.”
Hudgins’ sister, Karmela Hudgins, said her brother’s upbringing was even worse than their mother described. She said she failed her brother and failed the Kemp family because she didn’t do more to help him.
“He still may be able to get his life right,” she said, crying. “ My brother’s not a horrible person. He would never hurt anybody on purpose. He is remorseful.”
Hudgins read a statement in which he described himself as a “non-person” and “society’s outcast.” He said he understood that there was a price to pay for his actions.
“I hope, in time, the family will be able to forgive me,” he said. “Then I will be able to forgive myself. I express the deepest sorrow for your loss.”
In handing down the sentence, Fleming said he had never seen a greater contrast between families. He said the Kemp family seemed ideal in every way, while Hudgins’ family was troubled in every way.
“He had no support and appears to have had little love,” Fleming said.
The judge said that didn’t excuse what Hudgins did. His actions killed two people and destroyed their family.
“This was a stupid, extremely reckless act,” Fleming said. “He didn’t intend to kill the Kemp women.”
Fleming said he also considered whether consecutive sentences would do anything to heal the wounds and relieve the pain of the Kemp family.
“Hopefully with the passage of time will come some peace of mind and perhaps forgiveness,” Fleming said.
Civil action
A SEPARATE JUDGE in a civil wrongful-death trial last year determined that Kaston Hudgins alone was responsible for the deaths and awarded John Kemp a judgment of more than $5.7 million in damages.
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