Bond denied for former KSU student involved in fatal crash

By Larry Hartstein and Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A former Kennesaw State University student charged with vehicular homicide after a wreck that killed another student will remain in jail, a Cobb County magistrate decided on Monday.

Enlarge photo

Cobb County Jail Shaneisa Newsome

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Judge Hugh Robinson refused to set a bond for Shaneisa Newsome and bound the 21-year-old woman's case over to Superior Court.

A sport utility vehicle carrying four current and former KSU students ran off Barrett Parkway, hit several trees and landed on its side early Sunday.

Police initially said all four were KSU students, but university officials said Monday only two were currently enrolled.

One of those, 21-year-old Kimberly Johnson of Macon, died in the 2:30 a.m. crash. She was a backseat passenger in the 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer.

Newsome, 21, of Roswell, was treated at the hospital and transferred to the Cobb County Jail. She's charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI, failure to maintain lane, driving without a tag and driving without a seat belt.

None of the women was wearing a seat belt.

Front-seat passenger Michelle Jackson, 21, of Waverly Hall, and backseat passenger Lauren Prewitt, 22, of Kennesaw, also were treated at the hospital and released. KSU officials said Jackson is currently enrolled, but Prewitt is not.

According to police, Newsome lost control of the TrailBlazer as it headed eastbound on Barrett Parkway between Stilesboro Road and Old U.S. 41 in Kennesaw.  The vehicle left the roadway and hit several trees and a manhole cover before "coming to rest on its left side," Cobb police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

Newsome's mother, father and brother watched Monday's brief hearing on a television monitor at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.

After the hearing, her mother, Tonya Newsome, said her daughter "would never do anything to hurt anyone. She made a mistake."

Tonya Newsome also apologized to Johnson's family, offering "my love and my deepest sympathy."