The victim sustained life-threatening injuries.
Chelsea Ann Kendall (Photo from Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Frederick, Md (KM) Sentencing was handed down on Friday to a Union Bridge woman who intentionally struck another woman with a motor vehicle. The Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office says Chelsea Anne Kendall, 39, was given 25 years in prison with all but five years suspended.
Kendall entered an alford plea to 1st-degree assault on December 20th, 2022. That means she doesn’t admit guilt, but acknowledges the state has enough evidence for a conviction.
The defendant was also charged with 2nd-degree assault; failure to immediately stop her vehicle at the scene of an accident which involved bodily injury; failure to return to the scene of an accident involving bodily injury; failure of a driver involved in an accident to render reasonable assistance to an injured person; failure of a driver in a vehicle accident to report any injury, and death or property damage to police. Those charges against Kendall were dropped after she entered the alford plea to 1st-degree assault.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office says on July 13, 2022, deputies were called to the area of Black Ankle Road and Unionville Road for a motorist intentionally striking a pedestrian. They found the victim, identified as Jami Cornell, lying in the middle of the road with visible injuries and a tire mark across her abdomen and shoulder from being run over. Cornell was flown to University of Maryland Shock Trauma in Baltimore with life-threatening injuries.
The two women had been in a dispute over the victim’s boyfriend, who was Kendall’s ex-boyfriend.
Authorities say Kendall did not remain at the scene, but was located the next day by the Sheriff’s Office and US Marshals at her home in Union Bridge, and was taken into custody.
By Kevin McManus