MAPLE VALLEY, WA – Police say that a 15 year-old girl from Washington state, who had taken her godmother’s car without permission, purposely used the vehicle to strike and kill a jogger and then fled the scene, only to laugh about the incident later while telling her friends.
On July 18 at approximately 6 a.m., Kasama Smith was reportedly driving 50 miles per hour on Maple Valley street – 15mph over the road’s speed limit – with an unknown number of passengers when, upon seeing a jogger on the side of the road, announced “I’m going to scare him, I’m going to bump him,” according to court documents.
It was then that Smith plowed the Toyota Camry into Greg Moore, 53, officials say; Smith’s friend, who was driving behind her, told police that she heard a loud “bang” and then saw “something fly into the air.”
Moore’s dead body was discovered hours later; he had been knocked out of his shoes and was lying in a ditch in front of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, reports say.
Smith, police say, drove the car back to her grandmother’s house and reportedly lied about ever having taken it, claiming that the damage caused by the impact of Moore’s body had been caused by an individual with a baseball bat.
However, upon watching surveillance footage of the car on the news and realizing it was hers, Smith’s godmother notified the police; Smith – who had reportedly worried that her friends might “snitch” on her in the weeks following the incident – surrendered to police last week.
Smith has been charged with second-degree murder and hit-and-run, but despite the nature of her crime, Smith is not being tried as an adult in this case, with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office noting her age and clean criminal record as the reasons.
The decision not to try Smith as an adult has outraged the victim’s widow, Michelle Moore, who had originally offered a $35,000 reward for information that led to the arrest of her husband’s killer.
“A family member (of the suspect) heard the individual laugh about the way Greg’s body flew up in the air when she hit him,” Moore said. “It’s a ‘thrill kill’ is what it’s called.”
Michelle is organizing a fundraiser on GoFundMe to hire a private investigator, pay for funeral expenses and bills.
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