Family angry that BMW driver repaired car after deadly wreck

Family and friends of five people killed in a multi-car crash on Easter are seeing their heartache turn to anger over reports that the woman charged in the wreck tried to cover it up and may have had help.

Aimee Michael, 22, told her mother and grandmother about the wreck two days after it happened, police said. Sometime after that conversation the champagne-colored BMW she was driving was repaired. The two older women did not report to police what Michael told them about the wreck on Camp Creek Parkway.

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John Spink/jspink@ajc.com

Aimee Michael in court Thursday with her attorney, Scott Smith.

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Michael was arrested Thursday after the police got an anonymous tip. She remains in jail without bond on charges of causing the deaths of Robert and Delisia Carter; their infant son, Ethan; Delisia Carter’s 9-year-old daughter, Kayla Lemons; and 6-year-old Morgan Johnson, who was in another car.

Morgan Johnson’s mother, Tracie Johnson, was injured in the wreck and is in good condition at Grady Memorial Hospital.

“I hate that she [Michaels] didn’t … turn herself in,” said LaTonya Thompson, Delisia Carter’s friend.

“We were already going through the loss of our loved ones and then had the additional turmoil. Why would her [Michael’s] mother and grandmother not turn her in? Why would they take the additional steps to hide the evidence? What kind of parents are they?”

Several messages left at the Michael home and on the cell phone belonging to Sheila Michael, Aimee’s mother, were not returned Friday.

Aimee Michael lived with her mother and grandmother. Her father is working overseas for a military contractor.

Aimee Michael, a recent college graduate who had been sent out to get cake and ice cream for an Easter celebration, is being held in Fulton County Jail.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has not decided if anyone will be charged for allegedly helping her hide the evidence. “We are investigating all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident, including, but not limited to, any alleged concealment of the crime,” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Thursday.

Myrio Lemons, Kayla’s father and Delisia Carter’s former husband, said he forgives Aimee Michael for causing the accident that killed his daughter. But he cannot forgive or forget her subterfuge.

“I wish she would have turned herself in … so we wouldn’t have to go through this,” Lemons said in an interview Friday. “I’m very forgiving for what she’s done, but there are consequences … for the way they reacted and getting the car fixed. They weren’t going to turn themselves in at all.”

That, Lemons said, shows “no character at all. I can understand a young girl being scared and not knowing what to do and waiting a couple of days to talk to her mom.

“But mom should have called the police.”

Thompson said the Carters were on their way to meet her family for Easter brunch when they died.

Police say Michaels’ BMW hit the Carters’ Mercedes and then both cars cross over to incoming traffic. The Carters’ car hit Tracie Johnson’s Volkswagen. Michaels regained control of her BMW and continued on.

The Mercedes caught fire.

Thompson recalled that just the night before, Kayla Lemons and Thompson’s 10-year-old daughter, A’leeyah Ponder, talked on the telephone about what they would wear to brunch and how their outfits should be coordinated with their American Dream Girl dolls.

It was going to be a big deal.

“The whole thing has been hard,” Thompson said, of her friends’ deaths

Her daughter sobbed for days and is now staying with Delisia Carter’s mother — “ma Cathy” to them. Each is comforting the other.

“She has adopted her [A’leeyah] as her new granddaughter,” Thompson said of Cathy Smith, Delisia’ Carter’s mother.

Compounding the grief in Smith’s neighborhood is that Tracie Johnson’s mother-in-law lives across the street from Smith.

On Thursday, Thompson’s husband was hospitalized because his blood pressure was too high.

“It’s given me new perspective on life,” Thompson said. “We lost our best friends.”

— Staff writer Megan Matteucci contributed to this article.