Wichitan who accidentally killed teen fleeing from party shooting gets probation
A teen driver who accidentally hit and killed a 15-year-old girl running from a fatal shooting at a graduation party will serve three years of probation, Sedgwick County District Judge Kevin Mark Smith ruled Friday.
Samara Rockmore, 19, was also fleeing from the May 28, 2022, shooting when she collided with 15-year-old Jaxsen M. Hunt of Wichita as Hunt crossed 25th Street at Estelle. Rockmore was co-hosting a party at Touch of Class, 3115 E. 25th St. North, to celebrate her recent high school graduation. But the crowd fled after gunfire broke out around 11:25 p.m. during a fight inside the venue, police have said. The shooting killed 17-year-old Boisy D. Barefield of Wichita.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Hunt was among partygoers that dispersed on foot into the surrounding neighborhood; police estimated more than 100 people attended the graduation celebration. She was hit by Rockmore’s 2006 Chrysler 300 as she ran toward a vehicle some of her friends were in that had stopped at the intersection.
Rockmore, the affidavit says, got out of her car and apologized — saying she “didn’t mean” to hit Hunt and even asked if she needed to go to the hospital — but then drove off instead of helping or calling 911.
She later went to Wesley Medical Center, where Hunt was taken, but left without going inside. She then went home and told her mother the damage on her car was from striking a curb, the affidavit says.
Her mother called authorities the next morning, and Rockmore turned herself in, according to the affidavit.
Rockmore, of Wichita, pleaded guilty on April 14 to one count of leaving the scene of an accident, court records show. Her sentence carries an underlying prison term of 19 months, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said. But she won’t be ordered to serve that time unless she violates the conditions of her probation.
