The Daily Times

An Alcoa man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for a traffic accident involving alcohol that left a 21-year-old mother and her baby dead.

Jeffrey Allen Knight, 42, received two 10-year sentences to run concurrently from Judge David Duggan after a hearing in Blount County Circuit Court.

At 5:22 p.m. on Feb. 27, 2010, Knight was driving a 2001 Chevrolet Prizm northbound on Alcoa Highway between Hunt Road and Hall Road.

Knight, who was traveling at an estimated 60 miles per hour, lost control of his vehicle, went into the median, then went airborne and landed on top of a 1995 Pontiac Sunfire driven by Brittany Thomas, 21, of Rockford.

After crushing the top of the Sunfire, Knight’s vehicle then flipped and struck a 2006 Ford F-350 driven by Harold Stevens, who was not injured.

Due to the crushing impact, Thomas was killed immediately and her 10-month-old baby, Aiden William Thomas, died shortly afterward, said Alcoa Police Sgt. Hank Morris, crash reconstructionist for Alcoa.

Morris testified it was obvious that the young mother was dead, but the baby was still alive.

EMTs pulled the toddler from his car seat and tried to resuscitate him, but that proved impossible, he said. They both died at the scene.

“The car was totally demolished. The roof was crushed down on the top of the two occupants,” Morris said.

The second officer to arrive on the scene, Morris said, “Knight was still in his vehicle hysterically crying. He yelled on two occasions that he had only had three shots. There was a strong odor of alcohol.”

A test revealed his blood alcohol level was .2, much higher than the .08 legal limit.

Dr. Steven Cogswell, a University of Tennessee Medical Center medical examiner who conducted the autopsies, said Brittany Thomas suffered skull, chest and abdomen injuries.

“She suffered crushing of her head and torso. Either wound would have killed her. Her entire skull was crushed. Essentially, every bone of her skull had at least one fracture and usually multiple fractures,” Cogswell told the court. “The wounds were far more severe than the usual car crash.”

Aiden Thomas did not appear so badly hurt, but he suffered internal injuries.

“He had extensive fracturing of his skull. Both ankles and his right thigh were broken and his head suffered a crushing fracture,” Cogswell said.

Plea bargain OK’d

Through a plea bargain agreement, Knight on Nov. 23 pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide, a felony. The state law calls for a sentence of 8 to 12 years for this offense.

It was up to Duggan to determine how the sentence would be served — all confined to a state penitentiary, on parole or community corrections.

His attorney, David Eldridge, asked Duggan to sentence Knight to 365 days in the Blount County Jail and the remainder either on probation or community confinement.

Blount County District Attorney Generals Ryan Desmond and Clinton Frazier did not agree. They requested all the sentence be served in a state penitentiary.

“Confinement is necessary to avoid depreciating the seriousness of the offense,” Desmond said.

He said Knight “sat home drinking shot after shot, knowing he had to go to work that night.”

The crime was the result of careless conduct, he added.

Eldridge said Knight has no prior criminal history, is no threat to society and is completely remorseful about the fatal crash.

“He has a strong potential for rehabilitation. He is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders,” he said.

Victims described

Friends and family of both the Thomases and Knight spoke.

Darlene Thomas, mother and grandmother of the dead pair, said what started as a shopping trip to Walmart ended in disaster.

“Both of my babies lost their lives that day,” Thomas said. “He was under the influence of alcohol.”

Bethany “was a wonderful mother to that baby. She made me very proud. She was kind and caring. She always had a smile that would shine. She showed me love on a daily basis. I knew when I was old she would take care of me.”

Darlene Thomas said Aiden “was an angel from God.”

“My family has been destroyed. My family and myself were cheated because of a drunk driver. I haven’t been able to sleep a whole night since due to insomnia,” she added.

“This was in no way an accident. It was a choice Mr. Knight made that day. Please give Mr. Knight the roughest sentence possible and more,” she told Duggan.

Tiffany Breeden, who grew up with Brittany, said “she was very caring and responsible. She was very protective of the ones she loved and cared about.”

Brittany enrolled at Pellissippi State to be an RN to better herself, she added.

Michelle Hulverson, a co-worker at an area nursing home and friend, said Brittany was “so patient and kind with those little people. To this very day they still remember and talk about her.”

“We took care of each other and helped each other. She was always welcome at my home. I’d walk all the way to heaven and bring her back if I could,” Hulverson said.

A cousin, Jessica Steely, said Brittany “was like a big sister. It’s not the same without them.”

Ask for mercy

Knight’s friends and family asked for mercy.

His oldest sister, Vicki Bewley, said Jeffrey Knight “grew up in Morgan County. He loved going to school and the loved to go to church.”

She said Jeffrey Knight “visited his mother and grandmother every week, doing everything he possibly could for both of them. Jeffrey’s very trustworthy.”

Since the accident, Knight “has been very distraught. He cries a lot. He has breakdowns. He feels a lot of guilt. He means everything to us,” she said.

Former boss Sonya Martin said Knight “tried to help everybody.”

After the accident “he’s not the same person. There’s an emptiness there that I’ve never seen. He has never wanted to hurt anybody. He has told me 100 times how sorry he was and he would like to take their place. He’s one of the most wonderful people I’ve every known in my life.”

Kathy Jones, a retired Tennessee Department of Correction employee, said Knight was her nephew by marriage.

“He’s a kind, caring and thoughtful person. He cares especially for the elderly.

“He’s just a broken man. He has memory losses. He has nightmares,” she said, asking for leniency.

‘Appropriate sentence’

In deciding the sentence, Duggan said Knight “had no intent that this would happen. He did not want to murder anybody.”

However, “he consumed a very significant amount of alcohol prior to driving. There was a decision to get behind the wheel of a car and drive. As a result, two people have died.”

He talked about the seriousness of the offense being especially violent, shocking and horrifying.

He then announced the confinement would be in the state penitentiary.

“The court believes you are remorseful. I’m sure that it plagues you through nightmares and other ways,” Duggan said.

He said this was “an appropriate sentence for the offense.”

Darlene Thomas was tearfully happy. “I’m glad he’s going to prison. My kids deserve justice. He needed to go to prison a lot sooner,” she said following the sentencing.

“Thank you from my heart,” she told Duggan.

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