Alleged shoplifter that police chased through Harris County, Columbus headed to prison
An alleged shoplifter once facing multiple charges in an extended 2019 police chase that ended when a state trooper maneuvered to make her wreck on Columbus’ River Road is headed to prison.
Kendra Michelle Crump, 26, had been charged with two counts of serious injury by vehicle and one count each of aggressive driving, reckless driving, fleeing police and driving with a suspended license in the June 13 pursuit that started in Auburn, Alabama, where she was suspected of felony shoplifting.
From there the chase crossed the Chattahoochee River into Georgia, venturing into Harris County before turning south toward Columbus, where Master Trooper B. Talley employed a “PIT” or “pursuit intervention technique,” using the front fender of his cruiser to bump the rear of the Pontiac G-6 on one side, causing it to spin out.
As the Pontiac rolled off the road, two passengers who were not wearing seatbelts were ejected through the windshield. Crump afterward was trapped in the car.
All three were hospitalized. Crump had a broken leg; one passenger had a broken shoulder; and the other had a spinal injury, authorities said.
Crump, who had previous Muscogee County convictions involving shoplifting and a police chase, was on probation at the time. She has been held in the Muscogee County Jail since she was released from the hospital on June 18.
During a court hearing held online Thursday because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Crump pleaded guilty to one felony count of serious injury by vehicle and to misdemeanor reckless driving, and her other charges were dropped. Judge William Rumer sentenced her to five years probation and fined her $1,000.
But because Crump violated the probation to which she was sentenced for her previous offenses, the judge revoked the time remaining, sending her to prison. Had she not committed another crime, her previous probation would have ended in July 2023, prosecutors said.
That does not mean she will remain in prison until then, as she could be paroled earlier, but her probation on the charges she pleaded guilty to Thursday still will not begin until July 2023, leaving her under court supervision until 2028.
She is not to operate a motor vehicle while she is on probation, Rumer said.