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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
Ohhhh I just love when we get to this phase. I call it the primate phase.
In the wild when some primate troups precieve a threat, they line up behind and beside each other yelping and shrieking while placing the back of their hands to each other’s mouth as a show of support.
So goes it here, lined up against the preceieved threat of my calling out Colonel for his racist statement. Absolutly preditable.
Freedom: your yelping makse no sense at all. I feel sorry for you.
Colonel you said that in your first post, all the lying denials won’t erase it, but keep trying. that’s predictable too. One of the main things that demonstrates regret for doing soemthing egregious is to apologise. One sees it in sentencing hearings all the time. But you say the Rose’s should drop their law suit to get an apology?? This child killer has no obligation to demonstrate the most basic regret on its own merit?? That is abslolutly despicable.
You, sir, are just confirming your racism more and more.
I’ve addressed every issue, nice dodge though.
My bad Bystander. Killing a black man for no justifiable reason and then covering it up is equal justice. A simple fine for killing a black child is equal justice. I don’t know what I was thinking, you’ve shown me the light.
But you did get one thing right. I don’t respect racists nor do I have an obligation too.
I seem to recall all kinds of auto accidents that come whith charges of vehicular homicide, different levels of man slaughter, ect, at least a reckless driving charge. Now tell me wise one, were all those people out there to commit these acts on purpose? Should the ones that recieved those level of charges have been simply fined because they killed by accident? Does the taking of life by accident merit a greater punishment?
Further if I choose to drink and drive and kill someone, is that reckless or an accident?
If I choose to be using a cell phone and run over your kid, would that be reckless driving or simple accident that merits a slight slap on the wrist?
How foolish of you to suggest that what this girl did was not a flagrant disregard for safety. The proof is in the death of that little boy.
All of you know, admit it or not, This girl got away with killing that child because of who she is and who that child was.
Keep up the deception folks. I can’t wait for the next tatic.
(wife) my point was, to Poet, race is always an issue. Even when it has nothing to do with anything. The families should be the focus.
(the last post was made by my wife-the Colonel is not contradicting himself.)
All this bickering back and forth is silly. The point is that a child died. He was not being watched and got killed. The girl that hit him turned herself in. But people don’t think that was enough. Some seem to be calling for her head. My question is who was responsible for the childs safty? Someone driving on a major road where there never should have been a child, or the parson watching the child. I am a mother and it is true that kids can slip away, but if you don’t notice and they are gone long enough to get that far away posibly, just posibly you may carry some of the blame. I don’t claim to know all the details of this case. I have read all the posts and think race is always an issue. However this girl DID NOT INTENTIONALLY HIT THIS CHILD!! I am sorry for this great loss but fighting and name calling doesn’t do anyone any good.
Wow. Poet, how does the Colonel see to type with that huge white hood on his head?!? (That comment is of course DRIPPING with sarcasm-yet that’s the opinion you seem to have of him)
I gotta ask you Poet, how long does it take you to come up with these things? I ignored nothing from the Colonel. He already made his point about the apology. But I’m gonna ask you something further. How is it racist? I know you will refuse to answer the question. but I thought I would ask anyway. He said the Rose’s weren’t currently getting one. Not that they didnt deserve one. He also never mentioned their race. Now, had he said for example “that…family…“ then I could see the racial implications. but he didnt. He obviously has more respect than that.
I would like to pose another question to you though. What do you think Amherst County would have done if the driver had been black? You say they don’t care about black people. They can’t just let the child die without punishment to the dirver, cause that would let a black person go free (something an uncaring racist govt wouldn’t do). They also couldn’t throw the book at the driver because that would show that they cared about the black child dying. How do you propose Amherst would try to screw BOTH black indivduals in this case? (hopefully this line of questioning goes to show you just how illogical and completely reprehensible your attitude has been).
Colonel, you are welcome. I stand against injustice. But injustice goes both ways.
ok moron. this is my last post. o wait-i called you a name. must be more tactics of the racist. ooops…i mocked you. must be more tactics of the racist.
Let’s talk about your posts. WHERE, please I beg you, show me WHERE did you use an exact quote from me and tell me and the world that it was a racist comment? Remember now, YOU are the one who tried to warn me that I could not run from my posts because they are printed in black and white on the web page. You HAVE NOT addressed my requests. YOU are the liar.
And, where did I say they didn’t deserve an apology? O-wait-you wont actually tell me where I said that. So, I’ll answer it for you. I said that the Silby family isn’t apologizing because the Rose family is going after their money. That’s enough to make even the most self righteous person (maybe a Poet for example) not want to apologize. What I said was, the Rose family should offer to drop their civil suit in exchange for an apology. If “I’m sorry” is enough for them that that should not be an outrageous request. What I said was, if they didn’t drop their civil suit after an apology, it would reveal their true colors.
There. I did the work for you. Now I’ll sit back and wait for you to go off about how racist THIS posting was. Should be pretty funny.
Thank you Bystander. At least one person is bold enough to stand in the face of arrogant race card players and call a spade a spade. If more people were willing to tell card players to shut up, we might not have this problem.
hillcitycolonel: That’s another tatic of a racist. You see that denial doesn’t work, so you go from that to just being an outright liar. I addressed both of your posts. Just because you don’t like the answers does not give you cause to lie and say I didn’t, but that’s what the racist does. Next tatic please…
innocentBystander: I would be just as incensed about any death of a child. It’s ridiculous for you to suggest otherwise, but that’s not the subject is it? That’s not what happened is it?
Now while you’re prodding me with that question, have you seen one apology for the hateful racist thing from Colonel in saying this family deserved no apology? Curious that you would ignore that.
I owe an apology to no-one and I assure you known will be forthcoming.
by the way, the questions posted were intended for the Poet, not the Colonel.
The question was posed ti HillCityColonel about what if the child were white. Let me take it a step further. Would you be so fired about it if the child were Asian? Or how about if it were a young white boy that died? Or how about if the driver were black?
Given the text of your postings, I’m inclined to believe your answers to all of those would be no.
Wow. Heated. Just my 2 cents, but The Colonel, a bit over the top as he may be, is right. I don’t see a single thing racist about any of this. Poet, you owe him an “I’m Sorry” big time, yo.
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