Suspect in girl’s dragging death told cops he thought stolen SUV was empty: affidavit
The man charged with murder in a 13-year-old Wichita girl’s Feb. 6 dragging death told police he didn’t know anyone was sitting in her family’s SUV when he stole it from a west-side restaurant parking lot as her parents and sister dined inside, according to an arrest affidavit released Wednesday by a Sedgwick County District Court judge.
The affidavit, which was made public following media requests, says 34-year-old Kevin M. Palmer told Wichita cops that he got into the SUV after he saw it was running and unlocked in the parking lot of Texas Roadhouse, 6707 W. Kellogg.
Palmer told police he looked in and around the 2017 Ford Escape when he noticed it was running but didn’t see anyone. So he threw his backpack in the front passenger seat and took off on eastbound Kellogg, the affidavit says. He exited the highway at Meridian street, drove through the Newman University campus and got back onto westbound Kellogg before finally stopping near the West Street exit.
Palmer told police he didn’t see Brianna Ibarra until after he got out of the SUV to run away from another driver who had been chasing him, the affidavit says. That driver followed the SUV and honked and yelled at Palmer after seeing Brianna under the vehicle, the affidavit says.
Police have previously said Brianna got caught in a seat belt when she tried to escape from the moving SUV after Palmer took it from the restaurant parking lot.
Palmer, 34, is facing first-degree felony murder and other charges in connection with the theft and death.
The affidavit, which was released with redactions that include the names of witnesses and the girl’s family members, says the teen, her parents and sister went to Texas Roadhouse on Feb. 6 to have lunch but that Brianna decided she didn’t want to eat there, so she stayed in the SUV while her family went inside. They left the SUV running in the parking lot, police have previously said. The weather was cold and snowy that day.
The family didn’t know their vehicle and Brianna were gone until after they’d finished eating and went outside to leave, the affidavit says.
In a police interview following his arrest, Palmer told authorities that he is homeless and that he got into the SUV through the unlocked driver’s door, intending to steal it, after he saw it was running. He told police he “did not see anyone in or near the vehicle” or in the backseat before he drove off, the affidavit says.
If he had known anyone was inside the Ford Escape, “he would not have taken the vehicle,” the affidavit says Palmer told police.
Palmer told authorities he was driving on eastbound Kellogg when he noticed that a car had started “chasing him.” As the other car pursued, he got off of the highway, drove through Newman University’s campus and then drove back onto Kellogg, headed westbound. He told police he stopped and got out of the vehicle and “ran across the lanes of traffic on the highway in order to escape” from the driver who had followed him, the affidavit says.
Palmer told police when he saw Brianna, he assumed he had hit a pedestrian trying to cross Kellogg that he didn’t see due to “low visibility caused by the heavy snowfall” and because “he was distracted with getting his backpack,” the affidavit says.
The affidavit says Palmer made “several unsolicited statements” in front of the police officer who arrested him, including: “Oh my God. God help me. Is she dead? People are saying she was hurt.”
Other statements he reportedly made to the officer were redacted from the document before it was released by the court.
Palmer remained in the Sedgwick County Jail on Wednesday. His bonds in the death and unrelated domestic violence cases total $508,500.
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 3:06 PM.
