Traffic death case headed to trial in June
Published 4:40 pm Friday, April 10, 2015
The case involving a Montevallo woman charged with murder and reckless driving in North Chilton County in 2013 is heading to trial this June.
Amanda Rhoden Kizzire, 32, was scheduled to appear in court Thursday in front of Chilton County Circuit Judge John Bush for her plea day.
An order filed by Bush on Thursday scheduled a trial for Kizzire’s case on June 8 at 8 a.m. at the Chilton County Courthouse.
Kizzire was indicted in August 2014 on three charges including murder-reckless, driving under the influence, and reckless driving, according to court documents.
The indictment states that Kizzire “recklessly engaged in conduct with manifested indifference to human life and created a grave risk of death to a person and thereby caused the death of David Thomas Bryant.”
The Calera Police Department investigated the crash, which happened at about 5:40 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2013, on Highway 31 just north of Chilton County Road 95. The crash involved a motorcycle and an SUV.
Calera Police Sgt. Deven Heathcock, an investigator in the department’s traffic homicide unit, said at the time of the crash that Kizzire was traveling on the wrong side of the road when she collided with Bryant, 35, of Jemison, who was driving a motorcycle.
The two collided head-on near County Road 95.
Bryant was killed at the scene, and Kizzire was transported to UAB and treated for minor injuries and released later that day.
The indictment also states Kizzire operated a motor vehicle in Chilton County while under the influence of methamphetamine and amphetamine.
Kizzire was arrested Sept. 9, 2013, and later released from the Chilton County Jail on a $162,500 bond in June 2014. Kizzire’s plea day was originally scheduled Sept. 25, 2014, at 8:30 a.m., but she failed to appear in court due to being hospitalized for a “severe eye injury,” court records show.
Judge Bush filed an order Oct. 9 rescheduling Kizzire’s plea hearing for Oct. 29, 2014, and the hearing was later delayed until Thursday.
Kizzire had the option Thursday to plead guilty to the charges or have her case head to trial.