A man pleaded guilty Friday to a drunken crash that killed a college freshman as she was driving home to celebrate her mother’s birthday.
Reginald Stubbs, 55, admitted to investigators that he drank multiple alcoholic beverages combined with pain medication before the October 2018 crash, which killed 18-year-old Kennedy Segars. According to DeKalb County court records, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for vehicular homicide, DUI and other traffic-related charges.
Before the crash, Segars was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Klondike Road and Mall Parkway near Stonecrest Mall. Stubbs rear-ended Segars’ vehicle at 46 miles per hour, according to a news release by DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston.
Investigators said Stubbs had a blood alcohol level of 0.196, which is more than double the legal limit to drive. In addition, there “was no indication the defendant ever attempted to stop,” the release said.
The force of the crash propelled Segars’ vehicle into two others before her car flipped multiple times into an embankment. The Decatur High School alumna, who was attending Alabama State University, suffered traumatic brain damage and died two days later.
“Till the day I die, it will still be a pain,” Marvin Segars, the victim’s father, said at the time. “They took my baby at 18.”
The victims’ mother, Quvada Moreland, started the Kennedy Maria Segars Foundation to honor her daughter. The foundation launched May 14, 2021, which would have been her 21st birthday. According to the nonprofit’s website, it aims to empower young women of color through academic guidance and education.
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