Man charged in deputy’s Oct. 7 crash death smoked marijuana ‘blunt’ before driving: affidavit
Friends of the man charged with killing 22-year-old Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy Sidnee Carter in an October crash west of Wichita told law enforcement that he had smoked marijuana before the fatal collision, according to a probable cause affidavit released Friday that gives new details about the case.
Talking to investigators in the aftermath of the wreck, Kelvin Burgett admitted that “he smokes marijuana ‘every day’” and had used methamphetamine in the past, the affidavit says.
Burgett and two of his friends interviewed by law enforcement confirmed that he had been at a friend’s home in Valley Center before the collision, at 29th North and 135th West, west of Wichita city limits.
One friend told authorities “Burgett smoked marijuana while at his home,” and the second confirmed that, saying that the three of them had smoked a “blunt” containing marijuana that was made from “a Swisher Sweet Cigarillo,” the affidavit says.
Burgett left some time between 9 and 9:30 p.m. to head home, the affidavit says they told law enforcement.
The drive turned deadly when he ran a stop sign while heading westbound on 29th and slammed his Jeep Grand Cherokee into Carter’s patrol car while she was southbound on 135th. Carter, a recent academy graduate who had started patrolling on her own less than a week prior, was on her way to a disturbance call at the time.
She died at the scene from was head trauma, bone fractures and internal organ damage when the Jeep hit the driver’s side front door of the patrol car, a Dodge Charger, according to the affidavit and her autopsy report.
Prosecutors have charged Burgett, 29, with involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and also with driving after his Arizona license was suspended in September “for an accumulation of convictions,” including three for speeding within a three-month span, according to the affidavit. He’s due in Sedgwick County District Court again on May 8 for a preliminary hearing, court records show.
The night of the crash wasn’t Burgett’s first time driving while intoxicated; he has prior convictions for driving under the influence in Wichita in 2013 and 2015, the affidavit says. He also has prior drug and drug paraphernalia possession cases, Wichita Municipal Court records show.
Investigators determined Burgett did little to avoid the collision; according to the affidavit, they found only “very brief tire skid” marks leading up to the point of impact even though Burgett would have had a clear line of sight that night. Investigators also noted that the stop sign was clearly visible and there were no weather conditions or other traffic present that might have obstructed his view.
A download of the Jeep’s airbag control module showed Burgett had been driving more than 30 miles per hour over the posted speed limit — 88 mph in a 55 mph zone — about two seconds before the impact, the affidavit says. He was driving 85 mph when he crashed into Carter’s patrol car, the document says.
He told authorities he thought he had been driving on a street several blocks north, on 53rd, when the crash happened, the affidavit says. He was about 5 miles south and less than a mile east of his intended destination, in the 15100 block of 70th Street North, authorities noted in the document.
A blood sample taken from Burgett the night of the collision tested positive for cannabis-related substances including cannabinol, cannabigerol, Delta-9 THC and 11-hydroxy Delta-9 THC. At least two of those are “psychoactive impairing cannabinoids,” according to the affidavit.
A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper involved in the investigation who is a drug recognition expert determined “the circumstances of Burgett’s crash show relaxed inhibitions, altered distance perception, lack of concentration, and difficulty with depth perception” due to drug impairment at “a level that prevented him (Burgett) from operating a vehicle safely,” the affidavit says.
The chief toxicologist at the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center also determined Burgett at the time of the crash had been “under the influence of Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol,” or marijuana, which has “known intoxicating effects that can negatively impact the ability to operate a motor vehicle safely.”
Carter, a Bel Aire resident coworkers described as “bubbly” and “always smiling”, joined the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office in September 2020 and spent 1 1/2 years working as a jail deputy before entering the academy in February 2022. She graduated a few months later, in July, completed field training and started to patrol solo on Oct. 1, six days before her death.
