Maryland

Man Who Killed 3 Women, 2 Children in Oxon Hill DUI Crash Fails to Show for Sentencing

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

The man who caused a 2014 car crash that killed three women and two children failed to show up for sentencing Friday.

Kenneth Kelley was driving drunk when he crashed into a car stopped at a red light in Oxon Hill, Maryland, the night of Oct. 10, 2014.

The crash 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, was also killed in the crash.

Curtis was a mother of eight, the youngest of whom was just 6 weeks old at the time of the crash. Wilkerson had two toddlers. 

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

The families of the victims were expecting justice on Friday, but became outraged after Kelley didn't show up for his sentencing.

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

"We fully expected him to be here, but he did not show," said John Erzen, a spokesperson for the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office.

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

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Kelley had a GPS monitor, but it was removed before his sentencing. It is not known at this time why it was removed, an apparent violation of his court order.

"Earlier this week, he was taken off the GPS monitoring. We were not made aware of that until he did not show up," Erzen said.

Police have issued a warrant for Kelley's arrest and deputies are searching for him.

"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," Hardy said.

After the Crash: 'I Just Felt Like I Was in a Nightmare'

Prosecutors have said Kelley was driving more than 70 mph when he slammed his Mercedes into an Acura stopped at Livingston Road and Livingston Terrace about 9:40 p.m. that night.

The 1-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl 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, the father of Curtis' oldest two children, who are teenagers. "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.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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