Driver charged in death of 1 student, injuries of 2
The night of July 25, authorities say, Tommie Lee Cameron II drove with a suspended license, under the influence and with a crack pipe.
Those are the circumstances, prosecutors allege, under which he was piloting a 2008 Lincoln as he went east on 29th North approaching Woodlawn.
At the same time, around 10:45 p.m., 21-year-old identical twins Kari and Kati Rinehart and friend Reva Sams were coming toward Cameron in a second car. The three women, on break from classes at Wichita State University, had gone to Walmart for eggs. They were going home to make cookies.
According to police, Cameron drove the Lincoln at a high speed. It sideswiped another eastbound vehicle at the intersection with Woodlawn, swerved onto the raised median for several hundred feet, went into oncoming lanes and slammed into the car driven by Kari Rinehart. She died. Her twin sister and their friend were injured.
"This a tragedy beyond words," Joni Rinehart, Kari and Kati's mom, said Monday evening from her home in South Haven.
"Kari was a wonderful person. She never did anything wrong. And she's left a twin ... her best friend."
Joni Rinehart spoke a few hours after prosecutors charged Cameron, 36, with second-degree murder, alleging that he killed Kari Rinehart "unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life."
Cameron also faces an alternative charge to second-degree murder: involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
He also is charged with two counts of aggravated battery — for injuries to the two surviving women — and with possession of drug paraphernalia, a crack pipe.
A sixth charge accuses Cameron of driving with a suspended license.
He is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail. His bond on the second-degree murder charge is $200,000.
In his brief court appearance Monday, Cameron appeared by video in a wheelchair. He suffered a fractured leg in the crash, police said.
In a separate case, prosecutors also charged Cameron on Monday with robbing a man of about $15 in February.
Cameron has been convicted before: of aggravated battery and criminal threat for crimes in 2004 and of two counts of aggravated assault for crimes in 1996.
The Kansas Department of Corrections released him to parole supervision in May 2007. The agency discharged him in November 2007, records show.
According to a recent affidavit he filed in requesting a court-appointed lawyer, he has been unemployed since December. He listed expenses including $500 monthly in child support.
This story was originally published August 24, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Driver charged in death of 1 student, injuries of 2."