Wichita woman killed in 2019 crash was pregnant, leading DA to file two murder charges
A Wichita woman who died in a traffic crash in 2019 was about eight months pregnant, leading prosecutors last month to file two second-degree reckless murder charges against the man accused of causing the wreck, court records show.
Jerry Lynn Batts, 30, is also charged with alternative counts of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in the deaths of 28-year-old Sierra Frost and her unborn daughter. He is also facing a count of driving with a suspended license, according to a complaint filed Friday in Sedgwick County District Court.
Frost, whom the medical examiner determined died of blunt force trauma, was between 34 and 36 weeks pregnant when she was killed on Nov. 11, 2019, her autopsy report shows.
Wichita police have previously said Frost was riding in the passenger seat of a Ford Escape that ran a stop sign at west 53rd Street North and Charles Street then hit another car, slammed into a utility police and flipped onto its side. Batts was driving, authorities have said.
First responders found Frost unresponsive in the car when they arrived at the scene. She was pronounced dead at 10:32 p.m. that night — about 20 minutes after the crash was reported. Batts was hospitalized with serious injuries but survived, police have said.
The second-degree murder charges filed by the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office accuse Batts of killing Frost and the female fetus “unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
Batts made a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on Friday afternoon after authorities arrested him on a warrant the previous day.
He remained in the Sedgwick County Jail on Monday morning in lieu of $150,000 bond in the deadly traffic case and a $1,000 bond connected to alleged possession of drug paraphernalia and making a false report to law enforcement, an online log of jail inmates shows.
Batts is due in court again on April 11. There was no lawyer listed from him in court records on Monday morning. He told the judge during his Friday court appearance that he planned to hire a private attorney to represent him, court records show.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 10:56 AM.
