Wichita mom charged in daughter’s death told deputy she drove drunk, affidavit says
A Wichita mother charged with involuntary manslaughter in the March wreck that killed her kindergartner told authorities investigating the crash that she had been “drunk driving” and fell asleep behind the wheel, according to an arrest affidavit released last week.
“This is all my fault,” 26-year-old Nory Lam told a Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office sergeant as she sat in his patrol car after the March 7 crash, the document says. “This is the worst mistake of my life.”
The wreck fatally injured her 5-year-old daughter, Aleah Reyes.
Lam’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
According to the affidavit, when questioned about what happened Lam told authorities she had been at a birthday party at a cousin’s house in Derby, where she drank around “8 shots of Patron, and 1 Truly” starting at about 11 p.m.
But she also said she had stopped drinking alcohol 30 to 45 minutes before the wreck and “did not feel like she was under the influence,” the affidavit says.
She told authorities she had fallen asleep while driving and “woke up when her car impacted the ditch,” the affidavit says. The crash happened around 3:13 a.m. near 47th South and 127th East.
When authorities arrived at the crash site, they found a silver 2014 Ford Escape with “obvious damage” sitting upright in a field.
Lam was in the back passenger seat with her injured daughter in her lap.
After handing over her daughter to first responders, she followed a deputy to his patrol car where she reportedly said: “We were drunk driving.”
Aleah was pronounced dead at 3:39 a.m. The coroner’s office later ruled her cause of death to be blunt force trauma, the affidavit says.
Authorities noted that Lam smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot, watery, glazed-over eyes in the aftermath of the crash, the affidavit says. She also had an open alcohol beverage container in her car, according to the document.
Blood drawn from Lam about three hours after the wreck tested positive for alcohol at a rate of .098, slightly above the legal limit to drive in Kansas of .08, the affidavit says.
Lam was formally charged in August with one count of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence, court records show. She made her first appearance in court on Sept. 16.
Her next court date is Oct. 25.
