Prosecutors: Britt Reid should get prison time in drunk driving crash that injured kids
Prosecutors will ask a Jackson County judge to sentence Britt Reid, a former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach, to four years in a Missouri prison for driving drunk and causing a 2021 crash that severely injured a 5-year-old girl.
Reid, who will be sentenced Friday afternoon, pleaded guilty to felony driving while intoxicated, causing serious physical injury, for the crash that occurred Feb. 4, 2021.
Reid, 37, had just left Arrowhead Stadium when his pickup slammed into two vehicles on the side of the entrance ramp along Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility.
The crash injured two children, including Ariel Young, who suffered a traumatic brain injury.
During a plea hearing in September, prosecutors said they had reached a plea agreement with Reid and his attorney, J. R. Hobbs. They agreed that they would ask Circuit Court Judge Charles H. McKenzie to sentence Reid to no more than four years in prison.
McKenzie could order Reid to serve the entire four years in prison, as recommended by prosecutors. But Missouri law also allows the judge to sentence Reid to serve just 120 days in jail and place him on five years probation.
Reid, who is the son of head coach Andy Reid, could have faced up to seven years in prison, the maximum under the law.
In their sentencing memorandum to the court, prosecutors wrote that Reid was driving over 80 mph in a 65 mph zone at the time of the crash.
“In our society a criminal act like this must come with punishment, but it is important that this punishment be just and equitable,’’ said Brady Twenter, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor.
In his memo to McKenzie, Hobbs asked that Reid be placed on probation.
“Mr. Reid has accepted responsibility and continues to do so. He is sincerely remorseful for the conduct at issue in this case,” Hobbs said.
Prosecutors noted Reid had a criminal history involving substance abuse in Pennsylvania.
When Reid was 21 years old in 2007, he was convicted of the felony of carrying a firearm without a license, misdemeanor simple assault, possession of a controlled substance and possession of an instrument of crime. Reid was placed on probation.
In another incident, Reid was sentenced to eight months in jail in January of the next year after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving under the influence while on a combination of prescription medications. He also faced charges of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia in the 2008 incident.
Reid only served five months of the jail sentence because he graduated from Drug Court.
Hobbs pointed out that the prior criminal convictions occurred years prior to the 2021 crash and Reid “has tried to appropriately address his situation in terms of substance abuse.”
Prosecutors said that in November 2020 Reid was involved in a road rage incident in Johnson County but did not face criminal charges. A motorist reported the incident to authorities, who went to Reid’s home to investigate. Reid denied any wrongdoing and the investigation was closed, prosecutors said.
In support of the sentence recommendation, prosecutors referenced the case of Davon Powell-Terrill, who was convicted in Jackson County Circuit Court of felony offenses stemming from a 2018 incident of driving while intoxicated on Interstate 70 that ended in a crash.
A 7-year-old child who suffered a permanent brain injury was among those hurt in the crash. Powell-Terrill was sentenced to four years in a Missouri prison. He is currently on parole, and received credit for time served as his criminal case was pending, according to court records.
Hobbs said Reid graduated with honors from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in communications. He also had completed coursework towards a master’s degree.
Reid has been unable to secure an NFL or college coaching position, Hobbs said. Since the crash, he has worked as a volunteer youth coach and works as an off-season trainer with several professional athletes.
Numerous letters were sent to the judge in support of Reid. Hobbs noted that one letter writer said, “Britt loves his family, wife and children and is devoted to his mom and dad. What impresses me most about Britt is his willingness to share the failures, shortcomings, addictions, tragedies in his life with others.”
According to prosecutors, Reid was driving 83 mph two seconds before the collision. Reid had a serum of blood alcohol content of 0.113 about two hours after the crash. The legal limit is 0.08, according to Missouri law.
Reid had left the Chiefs facility about 9 p.m. when his pickup truck struck a Chevrolet Impala, which he said he did not see because its lights were off. Reid said he continued south on the interstate and then rear-ended a Chevy Traverse at 67.7 mph. He dialed 911 moments later.
Ariel’s mother, Felicia Miller, had arrived to help her cousin, whose Impala had run out of gas and stalled. Miller said she got back into the driver’s seat of her Traverse and looked in the rear view mirror when she saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle.
Reid told the arriving officer that he “was looking over his left shoulder to evaluate traffic so he could merge,” according to prosecutors.
Miller was momentarily knocked unconscious by the impact of the crash and was struck by the airbag. As she regained consciousness, Miller called out to her children. She found Ariel in the Traverse under the third seat that had folded.
Ariel was unresponsive and was taken by paramedics to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Following the crash, a Kansas City police officer noticed that Reid’s eyes were “bloodshot and red.” Reid told the officers at the scene that he had been drinking and had “two to three drinks.”
Ariel sustained a traumatic brain injury that included swelling and bleeding. She also suffered a fracture, brain contusions and subdural hematomas.
In an appearance on Good Morning America following the plea hearing in September, Miller said that Ariel was 7 years old, had returned to school and was “improving every day.”
In November, the Kansas City Chiefs and Ariel’s family reached a confidential financial agreement to cover her ongoing medical treatment and “long-term financial stability.”
