WEST VALLEY CITY — Former Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy Carla Redding regrets rushing to respond to a police call without turning on her flashing lights or siren, but she maintains that the resulting crash that killed a Kearns woman was not a crime.
A 3rd District Court jury considered that same question Thursday night after hearing Redding testify at her own trial. The four men and two women deliberated for 4 1/2 hours before deciding to go home at 9 p.m. and return this morning.
Redding is charged with class A misdemeanor negligent homicide, class B misdemeanor negligent collision and class C misdemeanor speeding in the death of Mallory Hilton, 19, on June 8, 2002. Redding now works for the Murray Police Department and, if convicted, would lose her job, defense attorney Ed Brass said.
Redding testified she had a lot on her mind as she left the scene of a domestic disturbance to answer a fellow deputy's call for backup.
The deputy was a friend, and she said his call for help mentioned a newly reopened bar that had been the scene of a homicide a year earlier. Deputies had worried the bar's reopening would bring more trouble, and thoughts of what her co-worker could be dealing with consumed her mind as she drove east on 5415 South, Redding said.
"I'm playing mind games with myself, trying to figure out what could be going on," Redding said, recounting the mere minutes between the time she got into her sheriff's vehicle and the time she smashed into the car Hilton and her three friends, ages 18 and 19, were riding in.
She testified she didn't check her speedometer and she guessed she was going around 55 mph in the 40-mph zone. However, she said it was just a guess and she could not dispute an expert's testimony that she was likely going 69 to 71mph.
She said she saw the westbound Toyota the women were riding in as she approached it, but she didn't expect them to turn left in front of her into a friend's driveway. She said she never saw a turn signal blinking on the car and wasn't worried about it until a split second before the collision.
"I thought to myself, Oh my God, they're going to turn left," she said. She said she cranked her steering wheel to try to prevent the crash, but it was too late.
Prosecutors said the accident was caused by a combination of excessive speed and Redding's failure to warn other motorists that she was rushing to an emergency. Flashing lights and sirens, they said, could well have saved Hilton's life.
Prosecutors "are asking you to turn a police officer who was doing her job the best way she knew how . . . into a criminal," Brass told the jury.
If convicted of all three counts, Redding could face 21 months in jail and a fine of $4,250.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com