From left: Quinten Kight (Chatham County District Court), Annemarie Flanigan (Moore County Jail) and Brooklyn Mae Carroll (GoFundMe). Background: Harris Lake in North Carolina (Wake County).
Rather than come to the aid of a young girl and woman in a North Carolina lake after striking them with his boat so hard its propeller broke off, the driver instead tried to get rid of evidence of the party happening on the vessel at the time of the fatal collision, lawsuits allege.
“Toss everything overboard,” Quinten Kight allegedly told the people on the boat, referring to the nearly 100 cans of White Claw and other alcoholic beverages that were apparently on board.
As Kight drove another 150 yards, 10-year-old Brooklyn Mae Carroll and 41-year-old Jennifer Stehle were “floating” in the water suffering from catastrophic injuries, the lawsuits say. Brooklyn later died, while doctors had to amputate Stehle”s leg.
Now Brooklyn’s family and Stehle have filed separate negligence lawsuits against Kight, his girlfriend and the boat’s owner Annemarie Flanigan, and eight other adults who were on the vessel on the Shearon Harris Reservoir. Kight and Flanigan also stand accused of second-degree murder and other charges.
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The lawsuits allege new details about what led up to the tragic incident during what was supposed to be a fun day on the water on a steamy August day. Brooklyn, who was friends with Stehle’s daughter, was accompanying the family on their boat.
That morning, meanwhile, Kight and Flanigan purchased some 80 to 100 cans of White Claw and other alcoholic beverages and headed to the lake around 11 a.m., according to the lawsuits.
Brooklyn and her friend went tubing and played on a rope swing. Later in the afternoon, the Stehles drove to an area where they thought it would be safe to swim near the boat. By then, Kight had spent hours drinking and it was “obvious” to anyone on the boat that he was intoxicated, the lawsuits alleged. Kight was the only person to drive the boat despite the fact that four people, including Flanigan, were not drinking, plaintiffs’ lawyers write.
Around 4:30 p.m., Kight was pulling two wakeboarders when one of them fell off. Kight allegedly kept driving at a “high rate of speed” as he looked back at the wakeboarders not realizing he was “headed straight” for Brooklyn and Stehle, according to the suits. He allegedly drove the boat “directly over” the two swimmers.
One of the people on the boat said she heard a “weird noise” and they looked in the water and saw the two swimmers “floating in the water.” The boat hit them so hard the propeller broke, the suits stated.
Kight allegedly kept driving for another 150 yards and told his friends to “toss everything overboard.” Investigators found 39 empty alcohol cans in the boat plus another 50 or more in the water, plaintiffs allege. When cops spoke to Kight, they noted he had “red and glassy eyes, that his speech was hard to understand, and that he had strong odor of alcohol.”
More than five hours later, authorities took a blood sample showing he had a blood alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, according to the suits.
“Collectively, Defendants’ reckless and senseless actions and decisions that day caused devastating and irreversible injuries, shattering the lives and wellbeing of two innocent families forever,” the Stehle lawsuit stated.
Kight and Flanigan remain in the Chatham County Jail on $1 million bonds.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Flanigan last month requested her bond be lowered by half. Flanigan’s attorney, Joshua Xerri, said his client is a recently retired U.S. Army combat nurse who has a 19-year-old son with autism in need of her care.
“Every day that Ms. Flanigan is in jail is a day that her son is not getting the care and support he needs and was getting from Flanigan,” Xerri said, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate WTVD. “There is no allegation from the state that Ms. Flanigan had been drinking, intoxicated, or operating the boat in any way.”
But prosecutors argued Flanigan’s bond should stay the same, despite the fact that she was sober at the time of the crash.
“What we have, Your Honor, is someone who had years of watching this guy hurt people when he gets drunk,” District Attorney Jeff Nieman said, per local NBC affiliate WRAL. “She’s the one who handed the keys to a drunk person.”
Ultimately, the judge decided to keep Flanigan’s bond the same.
Brooklyn’s parents attended the hearing and could be heard sobbing, WRAL reported. They sent out the following statement to local media:
Instead of taking our beloved Brooklyn to school today, we attended a criminal bond hearing for one of the people accused with her death. As we sat and listened to the disturbing facts surrounding this needless and tragic event, we held a lock of Brooklyn’s hair in our hands and remembered the joy she brought to our lives. We thank the Chatham County District Attorney’s office and law enforcement for their undivided attention to this case, which has devastated so many families. We also express our heartfelt thanks to this community for their continued prayers.
Kight and Flanigan were already facing charges of death or serious injury by impaired boating before they were indicted on the murder charges.
Meanwhile, Stehle’s long road to recovery continues, she said in a statement.
“Our hearts are full of gratitude for the overwhelming support our family has received. The meals, visits, messages, and prayers have been more than acts of kindness,” she and her brother wrote. “They have been lifelines holding us together during the most difficult days of our lives. We feel the strength of those prayers, and we seek God’s goodness in the way this community has come together to lift our family up.”
