The 18-year-old woman who drove a passenger van into a house—killing its owner—in Hempstead on Tuesday was admitted to the Nassau County jail's medical ward. Kayla Gerdes was allegedly high on Oxycontin and Xanax, which police say contributed to the crash, while Gerdes' lawyer doesn't think his client was high (she did tell reporters that she was on prescription drugs), saying instead that his client mistook the accelerator for the brakes. But she really wanted to know what she looked like on the news!
Gerdes was allegedly in a rush to make a court appearance in Mineola, over jewelry she stole from her mother's boyfriend. Police believe she felt her boss, Brian Steele, was driving too slow so he let her take the wheel. Gerdes' lawyer John Lewis told Newsday he didn't agree with the police's hypothesis, "An 18-year-old girl is going to tell a 29-year-old man to move over even though she's intoxicated or high and doesn't have a license? Are you out of your mind?" and also says the Steele was "in no condition to drive." Authorities are now debating whether to charge Steele.
Newsday also got a hold of the police statements that Gerdes made: One shows she said, "I killed someone! I killed someone" while the other has her stating, "The thing that made me not feel so bad was, she was old. I mean, 70 years is a long time to live. I want to see a newspaper or the news to see what I look like." The victim, Rebecca Twine-Wright, 69, was a retired doctor and had been gardening at the time of the crash. Her son Chauncey said, "It really hurt me a lot to hear her say that because anyone who knew my mother knew that she was a person who was full of life."
Gerdes' mother said, "I'm very sorry for the family and for this horrible tragedy." Gerdes, who was charged with vehicular manslaughter, DWI, and driving without a license, is being held on $200,000 bond or $100,000 cash bail.
