There were lots of tears during the sentencing Wednesday for the woman who unintentionally killed two Mounds View teens while speeding on a county highway two years ago, but Ruby Bougie managed to coax out a few laughs when it was her turn to speak.
She told a story about the time her granddaughter, Stephanie Carlson, got lice when she was in kindergarten and her mother “freaked out” and cut her hair off.
Unabashed, Stephanie proudly announced the news when she accompanied her grandmother to her school later that day to pick up her siblings.
“I got lice,” Bougie said her granddaughter proclaimed to her classmates when she stepped out of the car that day.
“She was really something,” Bougie recalled as those gathered in the courtroom laughed.
It was one of a few light moments during the otherwise emotional two-hour sentencing at the Ramsey County Courthouse for Rachel Kayl, and a tiny glimpse into the lives lost when she crashed her SUV into the vehicle carrying Carlson and Bridget Giere to school in Arden Hills on Dec. 1, 2016.
The two 16-year-olds were on their way to Mounds View High School around 7 a.m. when their friend, Samantha Redden, started making a left-hand turn from westbound County Road 96 onto Old Highway 10 in her Chevrolet Equinox.
She was about halfway through the intersection when Kayl’s eastbound SUV barreled into them at 80 mph, 30 mph over the speed limit.
Giere and Carlson both died in the crash. Redden suffered a collapsed lung, significant blood loss, an injury to her spleen and a traumatic brain injury.
All three girls were juniors at Mounds View High.
SENTENCED
As part of a plea deal reached with the state, District Judge Thomas Gilligan sentenced Rachel Kayl to an approximately 10-year stayed prison sentence.
That means Kayl will only be imprisoned if she fails to abide by the terms of her probation, which include the revocation of her license for the next six years.
The 33-year-old Maple Grove woman was also ordered to spend a year in jail with a turn-in date of December 2019.
The judge pushed the date off so he could hear from Kayl’s doctors as well as jail staff about how they will accommodate several physical and psychological medical conditions Kayl reportedly suffers from.
‘I MISS THEM’
Redden spoke publicly for the first time about what happened to her at the sentencing, describing to the judge how she could recall small details from that day, like what she was wearing and how it felt to have the steering wheel pressing against her when her car finally stopped flipping over.
“What I don’t remember is the accident itself,” Redden said, reading from a statement she wrote for the hearing. “I don’t remember (Kayl) hitting me and I don’t remember seeing her coming.”
When she learned her two best friends were dead, her world “shattered into a million pieces,” Redden said.
She remembers her friends’ hugs, and the sound of their laughter, she said. And she is haunted by the guilt she carries over what happened, and from the physical pain she still experiences.
“I miss them more than I can even put into words,” Redden said.
OTHERS REMEMBER
Along with Redden and Bougie, both of Carlson’s parents spoke at the hearing, as did Giere’s mother. An advocate read a statement written by Giere’s father.
Two of the girls’ classmates also submitted letters, describing to the judge the “eerie quiet” that filled the high school’s halls after the crash and “the void” left in the Mounds View community by their deaths.
Steven Carlson said none of his other four children could bring themselves to attend the sentencing because they didn’t want to give Kayl more than she had already taken from them.
“Stephanie and Bridget died horrific deaths, violently slaughtered in the blink of an eye,” Steven Carlson said. “Ms. Kayl walked away without a scratch.”
His daughter loved cats, astronomy, God, her family, he said. And she had a big heart, he added, sharing how his daughter offered to work on Thanksgiving the week before she died so one of her co-workers could be home with family.
“No family should have to go through this hell,” he said, reading from his letter. “We all miss you Steph. Love, Dad.”
Giere’s mother shared memories of dancing the tango with her daughter, playing competitive games of Spoons and watching Bridget dominate at poker.
She recalled telling her she loved her the morning she left for school.
“Do random acts of kindness,” she asked of others as a tribute to Bridget. “Eat a bran muffin. … Tell a joke, and don’t forget to drive responsibility and slow down.”
AN APOLOGY
Kayl cried throughout the hearing. She took the witness stand when it was her turn to speak.
Although she fought the charges for nearly two years after the collision, she finally pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and one count of criminal vehicular operation at a September hearing.
Two counts of manslaughter were dismissed.
She apologized Wednesday, saying there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t regret what happened.
“There are no words,” she said. “Parents should never have to bury their own children … I think about the girls … the dreams they will never fulfill.”
“I live with the constant guilt,” she continued. “I would give anything to go back in time to slow my speed … I beg other drivers to slow down. … The two minutes you save aren’t worth it.”
PROSECUTOR: JAIL APPROPRIATE
Before entering her plea, Kayl’s defense attorney spent months arguing in legal filings that it was actually Redden’s failure to yield to Kayl, who had a green light at the time, that caused the collision.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hassan Tahir dismissed that notion Wednesday, emphatically telling the court that Redden yielded to five other vehicles before Kayl’s SUV crashed into her.
“Samantha Redden did absolutely nothing wrong,” Tahir said, adding that it was a miracle the young woman survived the crash.
While Kayl didn’t intend to harm Redden or kill her friends, her decision to travel 30 mph over the speed limit that morning was “willful” and deserved punishment, Tahir said in his attempt to convince the judge that Kayl should spend a year in jail for her crimes.
Her attorney, Adam Johnson, tried to persuade the judge otherwise, arguing his client’s medical condition couldn’t be treated at the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center and asking that she be allowed to serve her time under electronic home monitoring.
Both parties agreed that several factors supported probation instead of prison for Kayl, including the fact that she wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, she didn’t flee the scene, and she has no previous criminal record.
Gilligan ultimately sided with the state’s jail request, saying that electronic home monitoring for what Kayl did was “not appropriate.”
In preparation for the case, the judge said he watched traffic-camera video of the crash multiple times.
“It is one of the most horrific things I have ever seen.”
