A Long Island woman accused of killing her 9-year-old son in a car crash was indicted Wednesday on a second-degree murder charge.
Kerri Bedrick, 32, was previously only charged with aggravated DWI and other minor crimes in the Aug. 22 crash in Bay Shore that killed her 9-year-old son, Eli Henrys.
But an indictment unsealed Wednesday upgraded the charges to second-degree murder and aggravated vehicular homicide, according to Newsday.
Police said Bedrick was high on methamphetamine as she skyrocketed the wrong way on the Southern State Parkway. Investigators believe Bedrick drove westbound for 5 miles in the eastbound lanes before slamming into another vehicle and triggering a four-car wreck.
Bedrick and the drivers of two other vehicles were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The fourth driver was not injured. Eli, a passenger in the backseat of Bedrick’s car, was pulled from the wreck by first responders but died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.
Police said they spotted Bedrick driving the wrong way in Suffolk County before the crash and attempted to pull her over, but she sped away. Investigators estimated she was traveling at 100 mph.
Cops found pills in Bedrick’s vehicle and said she admitted to taking methamphetamines before getting behind the wheel. Bedrick’s attorneys have said she was prescribed the medication.
Additionally, Bedrick’s license had expired at the time of the wreck, and it had previously been suspended 56 times, according to authorities. She has a prior DWI conviction from 2012.
Bedrick’s lawyer, Scott Zerner, said she’d been prescribed methamphetamines for medical problems including spina bifida, narcolepsy and epilepsy. He also said she was the victim in an ongoing domestic violence case.
“Nobody has suffered — with the exception of her son — more than my client,” Zerner told WPIX. “She is devastated by the loss of her child.”
If convicted on the second-degree murder charge, Bedrick faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Her previous top charge, aggravated DWI with a child passenger, carried a maximum prison sentence of four years.
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