Maryland

‘Captured!': DUI Driver Who Killed 5, Skipped Sentencing Hearing Arrested in Maryland

The DUI crash killed two sisters who had a total of 10 children

A man who killed three women and two children in a drunken driving crash and failed to appear for his sentencing hearing was captured Monday night, the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office said.

Kenneth Kelley was apprehended about 8:30 p.m. at a hotel on Allentown Road, in Suitland, the sherriff's office said in a statement. 

Wanted posters were distributed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. On Monday, police received an anonymous tip that Kelley had been spotted at the hotel. He was found inside a room. 

They had reason to believe Kelley was planning to leave the D.C. area. 

Prince George's County officials said Monday morning that they were trying to figure out who removed a GPS monitor from Kelley after he failed to show up for sentencing Friday, but they said Monday evening his file showed no order for him to get the device. 

"According to the case file, there was not an order for a GPS monitoring device," Prince George's County Circuit Court spokeswoman Tia Lewis said Monday. 

Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office spokesman John Erzen clarified on Tuesday that something went wrong. 

"We took a look back at the transcripts from the plea hearing, and there is mention of monitoring pending sentencing there, and the judge does say [Kelley will] remain on monitoring pending the disposition. And we had no reason to believe that that was not going to be followed," he said. 

Erzen said Monday that officials are looking into whether Kelley may have been wearing a GPS monitoring device connected to an unrelated case in Virginia.

Kelley was due to be sentenced Friday for causing the 2014 crash in Oxon Hill that killed sisters Tameika Curtis, 34, and Typhani Wilkerson, 32, and young siblings Hassan Boykin, 1, and Khadiua Ba, 13. Dominique Green, 21, who was a passenger in Kelley's car, also was killed in the crash. Curtis was a mother of eight; Wilkerson had two toddlers.

Erzen told News4 on Friday and again on Monday that Kelley had been wearing a court-ordered GPS anklet that had been removed. Officials had been trying to figure out which private company was responsible for monitoring it.

"Everybody is scratching their heads," Erzen said. "It's an unusual situation."

The Prince George's County Department of Corrections did not know which company was responsible for tracking the device on Kelley, a spokeswoman said Monday morning.

Later Monday, court officials said Kelley never was made to wear the device. 

The court assigns a private company to monitor a GPS device when the person wearing it lives outside the county, the spokeswoman said. Kelley lives in D.C.

Kelley's lawyer, Antoini M. Jones, declined to say whether he had had any contact with Kelley since he failed to appear for sentencing.

The families of the crash victims were outraged on Friday when Kelley failed to show up. 

"He took away five lives. Five. I'm not sure why the judge released him in the first place. You know, he shouldn't have been out on the street," Lloyd Hardy said. He's the father of Curtis' two eldest children. 

Kelley pleaded guilty in March to all 28 charges, including five counts of negligent manslaughter.

A judge released Kelley on $100,000 bond after his plea, though the state's attorney's office had argued to keep him in jail. 

He never appeared in court Friday. 

"We fully expected him to be here, but he did not show," Erzen said. 

A warrant for his arrest was issued. 

Hardy, the victims' family member, pleaded for help. 

"If you know Kenneth Kelley, if you've seen this guy, please encourage him to turn himself in," Hardy said. 

The Crash: 'I Just Felt Like I Was in a Nightmare'

Kelley was driving more than 70 mph when he crashed his Mercedes into an Acura stopped at Livingston Road and Livingston Terrace about 9:40 p.m. Oct. 10, 2014.  

The 1-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl inside were rushed to a hospital, where they died.

Only Kelley and the children's mother, Dossa Boykin, survived the crash. She had been driving the Acura.

"I just felt like I was in a nightmare," Boykin previously told News4. "I wish I would have died, too. My daughter was in the backseat, singing some silly song. We were all laughing. Next thing I know, I saw cracks in the windshield. We never knew what hit us."

Relatives of Curtis and Wilkerson said the sisters had agreed to take care of each other's kids if anything ever happened to one of them.

"Nobody ever thought, you know, what happens if they both go at the same time?" said Hardy. "Something like that was inconceivable. There was no plan for that."

Kelley was driving on a suspended license at the time of the crash. Prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was 0.14, nearly twice the legal limit in Maryland.

Mother's Day without Curtis is always painful, Hardy said. This year, the family could not bring themselves to go to the cemetery. They're looking for a measure of closure after the 34-year-old mother's death.  

"She was killed in October 2014. Here it is 2017. So, you can imagine how long we've been waiting for some type of closure, some type of ending to the story," Hardy said. 

Kelley faces a maximum of 50 years in prison: 10 years for each life taken.

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