Affidavit: Man, pregnant woman stole from Wichita Walmart before deadly 2019 crash
In the minutes before a man and a pregnant woman blew through a stop sign in a northwest Wichita neighborhood, causing a traffic crash that killed both the woman and her unborn child in 2019, witnesses saw the pair shoplifting hundreds of dollars worth of household appliances, baby clothes and ground beef from a northwest Wichita Walmart store, according to an arrest affidavit released last week in response to a request from the Eagle.
The affidavit, filed in Sedgwick County District Court, gives new details about what led up to the traffic crash that killed 28-year-old Sierra Frost and her unborn daughter more than two years ago.
Jerry Lynn Batts, the driver of the vehicle Frost was in, survived the collision but broke his back. Prosecutors earlier this year charged Batts with two felony counts of second-degree reckless murder and two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in connection with Frost and the fetus’ Nov. 11, 2019, deaths.
The 30-year-old Wichitan is also facing one count of driving while his license was suspended or canceled, a misdemeanor, court records show. His court-appointed lawyer, Sam Kepfield, did not return a messages seeking comment.
Batts’ next court hearing is scheduled for June 23.
The affidavit, signed by Wichita police Detective Kelly Mar, says that after the crash Batts tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive part of marijuana that gives users a high. The test results suggest he may have been impaired behind the wheel.
An officer who rode in an ambulance to the hospital with Batts after the crash noticed “a very strong odor of marijuana” coming from him, the affidavit says.
Batts also had fentanyl in his system, but an expert determined that was “non-contributory” because it was administered before Batts’ blood was drawn for testing, according to the affidavit, which also includes accounts from witnesses who saw the couple leave the Walmart with shoplifted goods.
Asked why filing criminal charges against Batts took more than two years, Sedgwick County Deputy District Attorney Aaron Breitenbach said by email: “Cases involving allegations of drug or alcohol often require testing of blood and later analysis of those results. That process can take a long time, and COVID didn’t help that.”
‘Going very fast’
Frost’s autopsy report says she was between 34 and 36 weeks pregnant when Batts ran a stop sign at west 53rd Street North and Charles Street shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2019, and hit another vehicle. Wichita police have said the Ford Escape rolled and slammed into a utility pole, killing Frost.
The medical examiner determined the fetus had been healthy and perished because its mother died.
According to the affidavit, witnesses reported seeing a man and a woman, later identified by police as Batts and Frost, rush out of the Walmart at 5475 N. Meridian, pushing shopping carts loaded with what the store later confirmed was nearly $500 worth of stolen merchandise. The items included a 10-piece set of pots and pans, an air fryer, an air compressor, kitchen knives and three pounds of ground beef, the affidavit says.
Video taken on the store’s security cameras show the pair leaving the Walmart store through a closed exit that night and rush to a car in the parking lot, the affidavit says.
They then tossed the stolen goods into the Ford’s backseat and drove away, the affidavit says witnesses told police.
A witness who thought their behavior was suspicious followed the Ford out of the parking lot.
That witness told police he saw the Ford “going very fast” and run two stop signs along 55th Street North before it turned south onto Charles Avenue.
The witness told police the driver of the Ford then flipped off its headlights and ran a stop sign posted at the intersection of Charles and 53rd Street North.
There, the Ford slammed into a 2015 Honda Crosstour, rolled and hit the pole on the southwest corner of the intersection.
The 72-year-old man driving the Crosstour was uninjured.
Batts fractured two vertebrae and was taken to a Wichita hospital for treatment. Staff there took the blood sample that later tested positive for the drugs, the affidavit says. The document notes that the THC level in Batts’ blood “is quite high and would case impairment.”
Frost, who was in the front passenger seat of the car, sustained fatal injuries that included multiple chest wall fractures, cuts on her head and a bruised lung, according to her autopsy report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 12:27 PM.
