Washington girl, 15, rams jogger with car to 'scare him', laughs about it as he dies
MAPLE VALLEY, WASHINGTON: A 15-year-old girl from Washington state intentionally rammed a jogger with a borrowed car and sped off, killing him on the spot. Reportedly, the girl laughed while narrating the incident to a friend later.
Taking her godmother's car without permission, Kasama Smith went 50 mph, which is 5 mph over the speed limit supposed to be maintained. Charges against the suspect say that she hit Greg Moore, 53, when he was jogging at about 6 am on July 18 on a street in Maple Valley. “I’m going to scare him, I’m going to bump him,” Smith reportedly told a passenger in the car.
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When the killing took place, a friend of Smith was following the Camry in another car. She reportedly heard a loud sound, and then saw “saw something fly into the air", she told reporters. Hours later, Moore was found at the spot in a ditch in front of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, lying dead and without shoes.
Smith has been slapped with second-degree murder and hit-and-run charges. Moore's wife is enraged that Smith is being tried as a teen and not an adult. “A family member (of the suspect) heard the individual laugh about the way Greg’s body flew up in the air when she hit him,” Michelle Moore said. She further said that since the car was doing 50 mph, calling the impact a "bump" is an understatement, and wrong. “It’s a ‘thrill kill’ is what it’s called,” Moore said. She had set up a website to find Smith, and offered a reward of $35,000. A GoFundMe page was created after the incident, and $41,291 was raised of the $100,000 goal when this report was published.
According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the case cannot be moved to adult court because of the accused's age, and lack of a criminal record. “Even when juveniles are convicted as adults, Superior Court judges at sentencing can – and do in many cases – still follow the juvenile sentencing guidelines set by state lawmakers,” office spokesman Casey McNerthney told The Seattle Times.
Smith allegedly took her godmother's car and killed Moore, but later lied to the car's owner, claiming that she never even drove it. She said someone damaged the car with a bat. Reportedly, Smith spent several weeks following the murder in fear and concern, worried that friends might “snitch on her". When Smith's godmother watched surveillance footage of the car, she immediately recognized it as hers and approached the authorities. Smith, accompanied by her father, later turned herself in.