Life sentence for driver in crash that hurt local musician Jenny Wood, killed relatives
A Sedgwick County judge on Thursday sentenced a Wichita woman to life in prison plus 38 months for a deadly downtown crash on May 5, 2019, that left local musician Jenny Wood with a traumatic brain injury and killed her mother and niece.
The sentence handed down to 27-year-old Mia Collins follows a recommendation from prosecutors in the plea agreement negotiated with her lawyers. Collins in October pleaded guilty to two counts of felony first-degree murder in the deaths of 70-year-old Maria Wood and 12-year-old Rosemary McElroy, as well as three counts of aggravated battery and one count of attempting to elude an officer.
District Judge Tyler Roush also sentenced Collins to time served for violating the terms of her probation in a 2018 case.
The judge’s order came after an emotional hearing where Wood called on the Wichita Police Department to accept additional responsibility for initiating the high-speed chase.
Wichita police pursued Collins in downtown Wichita the day of the deadly crash after noticing she was driving a stolen SUV. According to a probable cause affidavit released by the court in May 2019, Collins had smoked methamphetamine immediately before driving. When she noticed a Wichita police patrol vehicle following her, she told a man with her that she “can’t go back to jail, I have dope on me” and refused to stop, the document says. She was on probation at the time.
Wood, during the hearing, said that she didn’t agree with the way police and the news media portrayed Collins as “the bad guy.”
But in her view, that wasn’t the truth.
“What about Mia’s trauma that led her to the drug that she used?” Wood said in comments where she also criticized the actions of the officer who initiated the chase with Collins, the Wichita Police Department’s handling of the matter and people in the community she felt profited off of her story.
She contended that although the chase the WPD initiated wasn’t illegal, it was improper, “immoral and careless” because no one’s life was in jeopardy until after it began.
“Mia Collins is not the evil devil that the news made her look to be,” Wood said, adding later: “I stand here because Mia, I want you to have your life.”
Wood told the court that since recovering from her crash injuries, she spends her days volunteering at a food bank because of the lingering effects of brain damage including seizures.
When it was her turn to address the court, Collins sobbed and apologized to the families who were hurt.
She felt remorse, she said.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t live with this pain.”
