Woman pleads guilty to vehicle homicide in teen's death
Apr. 9—A 24-year-old woman will serve 13 years in prison after pleading guilty Friday to vehicular homicide and hit-and-run, charges that resulted from a drunk driving incident in which she struck and killed a teenager in February 2019, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins said.
After Madisyn Anne Culpepper pleaded guilty to the charges, Brunswick Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Stephen G. Scarlett sentenced her to 15 years for vehicular homicide, eight of which will be spent in prison and the balance of which will be served on probation, Higgins said.
Scarlett additionally sentenced Culpepper to five years in prison on the hit and run charge, Higgins said.
Culpepper struck and killed 15-year-old Jacob Butts in the Lakes subdivision in southern Glynn County while driving from a Super Bowl party at her brother's home in the neighborhood on Feb. 3, 2019, according to court records.
A sophomore at Glynn Academy, Butts lived in the neighborhood with his parents and was skateboarding on Lakes Drive when Culpepper hit him while driving a 2016 Toyota Corolla.
Culpepper then ran the stop sign at Baumgardner Road and U.S. 82 and struck a 2013 Toyota Highlander driven by a man who was turning into the Lakes neighborhood at 10:30 p.m., Glynn County police said.
She registered .220 on a blood/alcohol test. The legal limit in Georgia is .08.
She was arrested and charged that night with DUI and running a stop sign.
Butts' body was found beside the road around dawn the next day, prompting additional charges of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
It was determined that the impact of Culpepper's vehicle slammed Butts into the windshield, throwing him over the vehicle and into a roadside ditch.
Police determined Culpepper had been drinking at a bar that day and continued drinking at the party at her brother's house on Lakes Drive. She was 21 at the time.
Also Friday, a 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and serious injury by vehicle, charges that stem from the death of a 14-year-old Hortense girl and the injury of another teenager when he crashed while fleeing from a traffic stop for speeding.
Brunswick Judicial Circuit Judge Stephen D. Kelley sentenced Austin Blake Moore to 15 years on each charge. The sentences will run concurrently, with Moore serving eight years in prison and seven years on probation.
Moore was driving a 2006 Ford Mustang and racing with another vehicle on U.S. 82 when a county patrol officer clocked the vehicles traveling at 103 mph.
Moore attempted to flee, turning at a high rate of speed onto Ratcliffe Road in western Glynn County. He crashed into a fence at the end of the road.
Kylie Burgess, 14, died at the scene. A 17-year-old boy suffered multiple facial fractures.
Moore, 17 at the time, was the only person in the Mustang wearing a seatbelt, officers determined.
A county police officer asked Moore why he tried to flee when he was signaled to stop.
"I further spoke to Moore and asked why he did not stop and he stated they agreed to run from police, that it would be fun," the officer wrote in the police report.
