HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER CHARGED WITH FELONY MURDER
22-Apr-99 22:23:39

http://www.sltrib.com/96/MAR/29/tci/00124160.htm


HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER CHARGED WITH FELONY MURDER

By Vince Horiuchi
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Sharane Kearney with intentionally running over a woman and killing her after an argument over a minor traffic accident.

Kearney was charged with first-degree-felony murder because investigators believe she intended to kill Joann Collett, 50, during a traffic altercation in Salt Lake County.

Just after noon Monday, Kearney allegedly backed into Collett's maroon Oldsmobile at 3900 S. 300 East.

The two pulled into a strip-mall parking lot to exchange insurance information. But Kearney started to argue with Collett, witnesses said.

The suspect ``got out of the car and surveyed the damage and appeared agitated,'' said Donna Day. Then Kearney purportedly slapped her hands on the car to make her point and got back in.

Kearney started to drive away and ran over Collett as the victim was trying to stop her. Kearney's 5-year-old daughter was in her car when the woman was killed, said Salt Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Potter.

Collett was dragged about 1,500 feet before she was dislodged from the 1966 Lincoln Continental. An autopsy showed she died of trauma and suffocation as the car's bottom crushed her lungs, according to a complaint filed in 3rd Circuit Court on Thursday.

Deputies said the case is more serious than second-degree-felony manslaughter -- when a person recklessly causes a death.

``We have witnesses who supplied us with information that . . . said it was an intentional act,'' said Salt Lake County sheriff's Det. Keith Stephens.

Kearney also made an attempt to hide the car, the complaint alleges. Shortly after Collett was killed, the suspect went to her friend who owns the car and was ``freaked out,'' according to the complaint.

She allegedly told her friend to take the car away from her house and into a garage. When he asked why blood was on the car, she said she hit a woman who ``wouldn't leave her alone,'' according to the complaint.

Deputies arrested the suspect later that night at a friend's apartment. She was being held in the Salt Lake County Jail on $500,000 bail. She also was charged Thursday with driving on a denied driver license.

Kearney has been involved in another hit-and-run accident and she has been convicted of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

The suspect had been admitted to Valley Mental Health and the University of Utah psychiatric ward for drug or alcohol treatment, according to court records.