After her 18-year-old daughter, Hailey King, was run over by an unlawful immigrant driving a truck 36 mph above the pace restrict, Angel Mother Kathy Corridor promised her dying daughter she was “by no means going to cease combating for justice for her.”
In an interview obtained solely by Fox Information Digital from advocacy group The American Border Story, Corridor recounted her daughter’s grisly killing, which, she mentioned, launched her campaign to ensure that no different dad and mom and youngsters bear the identical destiny.
Whereas driving a scooter with a pal in Fayetteville, Arkansas, King was hit from behind by a dashing truck pushed by unlawful alien Sergio Rodriguez. In line with Corridor, her daughter was on her method house for dinner. Upon influence, King was thrown onto the hood of the truck. Corridor mentioned Rodriguez continued driving, swerving into one other lane and sending King headfirst onto the road. King suffered a mind stem hemorrhage, inside and outer cranial hemorrhages, a burst spleen and a lacerated liver. She died shortly after the Nov. 7, 2016, incident, abandoning her 2-year-old daughter, Brooklyn.
Corridor mentioned Rodriguez was sentenced to 17 years in jail for manslaughter, battery and leaving the scene of a criminal offense. After only one and a half years, Corridor mentioned she was notified that Rodriguez had turn into eligible for parole, forcing her to repeatedly relive her trauma every time she goes to courtroom to testify in opposition to his launch.
Corridor mentioned that authorities confirmed up at her door the evening of the incident and informed her, “You should include us to the hospital.”
She mentioned they took her to her daughter’s hospital room the place she discovered her “sitting up at a form of an angle and her eyes have been vast open. However she was like staring off into house.”
“I knew proper after I checked out her that she was gone,” mentioned Corridor. “So, I sat down along with her and talked to her and informed her how a lot I really like her. Instructed her I used to be by no means going to cease combating for justice for her… after which her coronary heart stopped.”
Moreover King, Corridor mentioned that her daughter’s pal, Osmin “David” Gutierrez, was “trapped beneath the truck for over a mile” because the unlawful immigrant continued driving. She mentioned that “when sparks began taking place, [Rodriguez] pulled into an condo advanced. And when he did, David’s torso was – his legs indifferent, [and he] was left within the driveway screaming for his life.”
“He was nonetheless acutely aware,” she mentioned.
Gutierrez died two years later from a blood clot ensuing from his misplaced legs.
Regardless of her promise, Corridor mentioned getting justice for her daughter has been a “laborious lengthy highway.” After the incident, Corridor mentioned Rodriguez “disappeared for 3 days” earlier than police discovered him. When he was apprehended, Corridor mentioned Rodriguez was launched on bond in lower than an hour.
She believes that Rodriguez was “protected each step of the way in which” throughout the trial course of whereas she and her household “have been handled like we have been the criminals once we’d go into courtroom.”
Regardless of his immigration standing, Corridor mentioned a choice was made to not notify US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She mentioned she was informed that “if we might have knowledgeable ICE that he was right here and he was unlawful, that they might have simply picked him up and brought him all the way down to Texas and despatched him again and he would have by no means needed to take care of the loss of life of [her] daughter.”
On the time, Corridor mentioned the household felt this “was form of placing us in a rock and a tough place.”
“It’s so complicated to be there and say, ‘OK, do I need him to be deported proper now or do I simply need him to spend time both method and get him out?’” she mentioned. “We had no thought, you understand, a alternative like that. What sort of resolution do you make?”
As a consequence of parole hearings, Corridor mentioned that she and her household “need to relive this proper now each two years.”
“As quickly because the ache dulls slightly bit, you need to return by way of the entire thing making ready to attempt to hold him behind bars once more,” she mentioned. “My daughter, the one factor she did unsuitable that day was being on the again of a scooter coming house for dinner. She didn’t deserve this.”
“She doesn’t deserve for her daughter to not know who she is and the way a lot she cherished her. She doesn’t deserve any of it, and he or she deserves to have the justice I promised to her as she was dying,” Corridor continued, concluding, “I’ll by no means cease combating; I’m going to do every part I can to maintain my promise to her.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to the Fayetteville Police Division, Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace, Washington County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace and Washington County Circuit Court docket for remark.
