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Grandfather reacts after driver fined in 2 year...
James Rose says Kaylie Silby shouldn't go to jail but should not have a license. Silby will keep her license and pay a $500 fine in connection to the death of Omarion Rose.
Omarion Rose, 2, died Jan. 14.
AMHERST — A Madison Heights teen was found guilty of improper driving Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 14 death of a toddler. She was fined $500 and will not go to jail.
According to testimony in the trial, Kaylie Silby was driving on Seminole Drive that morning near Omarion Rose’s Branch Drive home when her cell phone rang.
“I had to take my eyes off the road … I felt a bump,” Silby testified. “I did not think to think it was a two-year-old child.”
The 18-year-old testified in Amherst County General District during a tense and emotional trial that lasted more than three hours before a packed courtroom. She cried throughout the proceedings; so did Omarion Rose’s mother.
Silby, 18, said she had a good view of the road before her phone rang, and it was clear when she looked over to grab the phone. After feeling the car hit something, she said, she checked her mirrors and saw nothing.
Eva Martin testified she saw the boy on the side of the road around 8:30 that morning. When she stopped, her husband, who first thought it was a doll, told her to call 911.
The child later died at UVa medical center.
It wasn’t until Silby saw a commercial for the evening news later that day about the investigation that she realized she could have hit the child, Virginia State Police Special Agent Michael Bryant testified.
Bryant interviewed Silby after her mother’s boyfriend called police to tell them Silby was worried she might have hit the boy.
“She told me she thought it was a pothole, at worst a dog,” Bryant testified.
He also testified her cell phone records backed up her story and that her boyfriend called her around 8:23 a.m., around the time police believe the toddler was hit.
Dr. William Gormley, assistant chief medical examiner for the state forensics office in Richmond, testified an autopsy showed the boy likely was struck once and not hit by more than one car.
Investigators also were able to match pieces of plastic found near the boy to Silby’s turn signal.
Judge Edwin Burnette found Silby not guilty of reckless driving, the original charge.
Burnette said he believed Silby did strike Rose, causing his death. But reaching for a cell phone, he said, “is not illegal, but it may be imprudent.”
The judge acknowledged that his ruling and the subsequent maximum penalty, a $500 fine, may seem inadequate to many, but said he hoped it would make others think twice before taking their eyes off the road to answer a phone.
Silby did not exit the courtroom or the courthouse through a public entrance and was not available for comment.
“It was a bad situation,” her mother, Belinda Silby, said before leaving.
Katrina Jennings, Rose’s godmother, said she was angry after the trial because Silby did not apologize or say she was sorry.
Jennings said the family was happy with the job Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox did in presenting the case.
“A life is gone, though,” she said. “You can never bring it back.”
Prosecutors earlier said reckless driving, a misdemeanor carrying as much as a year in jail, was the strongest charge they could bring against Silby because there was not enough evidence to prove she knew she had hit the boy.
Maddox said the family was obviously upset by the outcome.
“This is just a tragic case all the way around,” she said. “We respect the judge’s decision.”
While state police investigators and her staff put in many hours preparing for the trial, she said she always knew the improper driving ruling was a possibility.
“It came down to driver inattention,” she said. “The judge equated that with reaching for a cup of coffee and reaching for a cell phone is not illegal.”
Legislative proposals concerning the use of cell phones were hot issues in the 2007 General Assembly. Ultimately, though, the bill did not pass.
Maddox said she will do her part to use Rose’s death as a case study for why such legislation is needed.
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Reader Reactions
Yes Colonel I called you out on your racist post and I’m still calling you on it. That will never change as long as you or anyone else does it.
Those painfull contortions you’re going through to make that tremendous leap of logic in your recent post does not address that issue, but thanks for the entertainment.
You make racist comments and I’m supposed to tell you how angelic they are? How foolish of you to think that.
By the way, thank you for this move. I knew sooner or later you would make it. This is the move where the racist can’t get away with what they say, but they can’t stand the heat either. So what do they do? They accuse the accuser. Its called distraction. So typical.
Next move please…
“You how the racist thinks? He/she thinks all they have to do is undervalue, minimise or marginalize the person that is calling them out, and that’s all to it.“
you just defined yourself. proving the point of the previous poster. YOU called people racist. YOU called people fools. YOU marginialized the arguments. YOU are the true racist here. Deny it all you want. But Wait-denial is the first tactic of a racist. You said it yourself.
Amazed, preach your nonsensical phycho-babble to your own choir, I’m not at all impressed. It’s really funny how you guys think you wield so much authority that all you have to do is tell somebody to shut up, and I’m supposed to cowtow in a corner.
You how the racist thinks? He/she thinks all they have to do is undervalue, minimise or marginalize the person that is calling them out, and that’s all to it. Poof!!! I’m gone. What a hoot!!
I’ve defined my agenda quite succinctly.
Your attempt to redefine it is pathetic.
You may be in a position to ignore racism, that’s your choice, but I’m not in that position. Racism is alive and thriving and I will continue to speak out and hold people accountable for what they say and do. Including you.
Is that plain enough?
Usually people find fault in others when they see things about other people that they hate. I say this because usually when people automatically pull the race card at the drop of a hat, they’re really the ones with the problem. Poet, please give it a rest. You’ve proven to us that you have an issue, not only with your racist agenda, but with your lack of maturity. Save us all the frustration and just get some help.
Tsk, Tsk, Tsk Bystander, I suppose in your mind you think you’ve made a point, but let me dsabuse you of that notion too. All you have said has been asked and answered. Your constant denials and crazy distortions of my position do not even pass the tickle test.
Even less credible is your attempt to add trivials to try to distract from my main point. Like I said, this is all predictable.
Now boys and girls this is where Bystander moves to the final phase. Its the ‘hold his breath and stamp his feet’ phase. He can’t overcome his own rantings and shortcomings, so he lashes out at those that won’t accept his nonsense.
The lesson??? This is the way to hold them accountable for what they say. Call them out and keep calling them out. The more they come to try to drown you out, the more you call them on it. The likes of Bystander, Colonel, et-al, have been so used to carrying the conversation and not being challenged on what they say. They are so used to being in that self rightgeous bubble and it just infuriates them when they get their feet held to the fire.
When they are, well, this is how they respond.
Well this is directed straight back at you Bystander. Take your marbles and run on home little one. I’m your (et-al) worst enemy because I can’t be intimidated or shouted into silence.
Next move please…
poet, read the responses. NO ONE has posted on this message board to agree with you . THAT’S where I make the assumption. And so far, I’M RIGHT!
How did you raise 7 kids if you have to have everything explained to you?
Thank you for finalyl using direct quotes. Unfortunately you still have yet to do so with anything that substantiates your claim that we are racist. Because you CANNOT.
Also, nice way to avoid completely the idea tha tyou are not dealing with white folk. Scares you so much you didn’t want to touch it I guess. Yet you are so blinded by your ignorance that you apparently just dont care.
Poet, I am not going to respond to anything else you post. You’ve managed to take the focus off of a dead child to your own racist and hateful agenda. You are a disgrace to humanity not just the community. I am ashamed to have even been involved in a discussion with you.
Bystander I’m going to comment on just this point for the fun of it, just to demonstrate how stupid your post is.The rest of your post I’ve dealt with time and again, so the more you repeat the same nonsense the bigger liar you are.
Here is what you said that I responded to:
Poet, just shut up. None agrees with you. if they did, they’d be posting.
Which is typical speech for your ilk in thinking others need your approval to be speak. So since you would respond in the same ignorant way to those that would agree with me, (ie telling them to just shut up, being a liar in denying what they obviously have responded to ect) how do you make this tremendous leap of logic to this next quote since you’re the one that says I’m standing alone?
“since when do I need the approval of racist idiots or their permission or agreement?” Thanks for making my point for me. You just called people that agree with you racist idiots. Good job.
More self deception.
You are so desparate to try to flame the conversation to make a point, that you make statements like this that’s beyond stupid even for you.
Listen, let me disabuse you of the notion that you can try to be smart and flame me. I doesn’t work for you. You just look dumber beyond what’s normal for you.
1) Poet-for someone who complains about people ignoring points you made in your posts, you sure do your fair share of it yourself. Example being the repeated requests for you to directly quote any racist comment made. You gloss right over them on the way to your fool hearty tirades.
2) Poet, the comment I made was directed at YOU and people who agree with YOU. No one has stepped up to do so. YOU responded with “since when do I need the approval of racist idiots or their permission or agreement?“ Thanks for making my point for me. You just called people that agree with you racist idiots. Good job.
3) (I have not made the following an issue. As I read Colonel’s posts neither has he. But I am going to bring it up anyway.) When have either of us made any comments about our particular race. Remember when he said you better know who you are talking to when you call them a racist? Neither he nor I have ever said we were white. Neither he nor I have never said we were not black. Our race, no one’s race, is the issue here. YOU, and YOU ALONE, have made race the issue. 3 people have stood up to oppose you. No one has stood to defend you. This should tell you something.
I said it before. I will say it again. Please, listen to reason and just shut up.
I see you guys have moved to the desparation phase. This is where all you do is repeat the same flumox desparatly trying to make it mean more than it did before. Nothing new worthy of responding to, because you still won’t like the answers and your will just keep repeating the same lies and denials. This is also where all you can do is disgrace yourselves with low brow comments attempting to silence your exposer.
I know, I know…you’ve been so used to getting away with your ignorant racism it hurts to be called out on it.
By the way,since when do I need the approval of racist idiots or their permission or agreement? That’s your problem Bystander. You’ve been stewing in that self delusion so long you’ve come to believe it.
“Colonel you said that in your first post, all the lying denials won�t erase it” WHAT DID HE SAY!?!? YOU REFUSE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.
I too love this phase. It’s when idiots try to argue and make ignorant comments in long drawn out posts trying to make themselves appear intelligent.
Poet, just shut up. None agrees with you. if they did, they’d be posting. The silence is deafening. How about adding to it.
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