Grandmother of hit-and-run victim: ‘I don’t hold malice in my heart’

Viewing a photo of two smiling faces against the backdrop of Radio City Music Hall, Francis Brown recalls the pleasant times she spent traveling with her granddaughter.

While touring New York City, they saw the Rockettes and the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. They ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and rode on a double-decker bus.

“This is like 20 years ago,” the grandmother said, sitting at a friend’s home in Columbus. “Kassie, she (had) just turned 15, and I took her to New York for her 15th birthday. ... We had a grand time.”

Now, Brown’s heart aches from the loss of her only granddaughter, Kassandra Hollinhead, who died March 4 in a hit-and-run accident.

On Saturday, she and other relatives will celebrate the young woman’s life with a memorial service at New Mt. Olive Baptist Church, releasing doves in her memory. The service will begin at noon.

Hollinhead, 35, was struck by two vehicles crossing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard the Saturday night of her death. She died of blunt-force trauma to the head and torso, according to a preliminary report from the crime lab in Decatur. Authorities have ruled her death accidental.

Jovonne Williams, a driver who allegedly fled the scene in one of the vehicles, still faces charges related to the accident. On March 8, Williams appeared in Recorder’s Court and pleaded not guilty to felony homicide by vehicle, hit-and-run, duty to report fatal injury accident, driving while license suspended or revoked and having no proof of insurance.

The next day, police filed two additional charges of tampering with evidence and obstruction of law enforcement in connection with the crash.

Hollinhead’s father, Arthur James Hollinhead, has said that he wants justice for her untimely death.

Brown said Williams should not have left the scene of the accident, but she understands why she might have been afraid to come forward.

“I don’t hold malice in my heart towards her,” she said. “When I get up in the morning, I pray for Kassie and I pray for that young woman and her family because nobody knows what she’s feeling or the fear. ... Whatever is going on, I can’t hold that in my heart in anger. I don’t think it accomplishes anything, and I know it won’t bring Kassie back to us.

“I just want these people to know that I have compassion for them,” she said of Williams and her family. “God says if you don’t forgive, you can’t be forgiven. ... I just wish them the best, and maybe she will grow and change her life.”

She said young people make horrible choices sometimes.

“I’ve made some; I mean I think everybody has,” she said. “We’re not perfect people, and we will never be, but we can make atonement for it, and we can look at for what it is and change our lives if we so choose.

“I know this is a difficult time and there are a lot of angry people, but it’s not going to benefit them being angry like that,” she said. “They want justice, and I think the justice is already there. She’s there and she’s been charged with this. It should be enough.”

Brown, a resident of Union Springs, Ala., is the daughter of the late Frank Chester, a former Columbus city councilman. She said Hollinhead was her great-grandfather’s pride and joy before his death in 2005, and the two shared many characteristics.

Hollinhead was out-going and made friends easily, Brown said. She was a graduate of Hardaway High School and worked at Logan's Roadhouse, Speakeasy and Wayne Farm, LLC.

Brown said she helped Hollinhead’s mother raise her, and the young woman lived her with her in Union Springs for a few months. It wasn’t always easy, with the generational differences; and they had some challenging moments, she said. But they were always close, and Hollinhead came to visit the morning of her death.

When Brown learned of the tragedy a few hours later, she was just devastated. She said it came almost two years after the death of her daughter, who was Hollinhead’s mother. Brown lost her mother the same year.

“I’m going to miss her every day, but I’m not the kind of person that can stay in deep grief; I cannot do that,” Brown said reflecting on life without her granddaughter. “After two days of crying, I just felt bad. But I still have memories from her childhood and the times we spent together.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2017 at 2:22 AM with the headline "Grandmother of hit-and-run victim: ‘I don’t hold malice in my heart’."