Sentencing for ex-Chiefs assistant coach in DWI crash delayed by Jackson County judge
A sentencing hearing for Britt Reid was delayed on Thursday as the former Chiefs assistant coach faces up to four years in Missouri prison for a drunk driving crash that injured two young children, one seriously, in February 2021.
Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Charles E. McKenzie issued an order on Thursday afternoon continuing the hearing over a scheduling conflict. The judge is overseeing a separate jury trial expected to continue through Friday.
McKenzie set the next hearing for Tuesday afternoon.
Reid, of Overland Park, pleaded guilty in September to a single felony of driving while intoxicated leading to a serious physical injury. Under Missouri law, he faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, though prosecutors agreed not to seek a sentence higher than four years in exchange for his guilty plea.
In a sentencing memorandum filed Monday, prosecutors said Reid should serve those four years in Missouri prison. They pointed to prior criminal convictions involving substance abuse from years ago and the end result of a child suffering severe injury among their arguments to support that.
“In our society a criminal act like this must come with punishment, but it is important that this punishment be just and equitable,’’ Brady Twenter, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor, wrote in the memorandum.
J.R. Hobbs, Reid’s defense attorney, is calling for a lighter punishment. Hobbs says prior criminal convictions occurred years before the 2021 crash and Reid “has tried to appropriately address his situation in terms of substance abuse.”
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.
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.
On Feb. 4, 2021 about 9 p.m., Reid had left the Chiefs facility 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.
Felicia Miller, mother to 5-year-old Ariel Young, had arrived that night 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 rearview 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.
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 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.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 5:58 PM.
