Jury selection got underway Monday in Hamilton County Criminal Court in the case of a former Rutherford County detective charged with reckless homicide in the July 17, 2008 death of an 11-year-old Kentucky girl.
Selected jurors will be transported to Murfreesboro, where the trial of Ron Killings is scheduled to begin trying on Tuesday morning.
The former sheriff’s detective is accused of killing Hopkinsville, Ky. resident Lakeisha White, who reportedly was visiting family in Murfreesboro at the time she was struck by his patrol car.
Prosecutors say Killings was going 72.8 miles per hour one second before the collision – more than 40 mph over the speed limit.
Defense attorneys do not dispute that their client was traveling at a high rate of speed, but argue that he was doing so lawfully since he was responding to a call for help from another officer.
Charges against Killings include reckless homicide, filing a false report and tampering with evidence.
After he struck the child, prosecutors say, Killings removed at least two liquor bottles containing alcoholic beverages from his patrol car before going to check on the fatally injured child, it was charged.
Witnesses recovered the bottles at the scene, after responding Murfreesboro Police Department officers allegedly ignored them.
The Murfreesboro officers were disciplined later for their handling of the case.
Lab tests showed that Killings was not drunk at the time of the wreck, although the Tennessee Bureau Of Investigation did determine that at least one of the two bottles belonged to the detective.
The family of Lakeisha White filed a $7.5 million lawsuit against the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal collision, but later settled out of court for an unspecified amount more than $200,000.