Jury finds Kirby guilty of murder

MARTINSVILLE -- Richard Miller often wakes up huddled and screaming for help.\nMiller, only 14 but mature beyond his years, still remembers the rusty, jagged metal collapsed around him. He still remembers the smell of the dusty air.\nMiller and Judy Kirby were the only survivors of a high-speed, wrong-way head-on collision on Ind. 67 on March 25 last year that left seven dead. Thursday, a jury from Dearborn County found Kirby guilty on seven counts of murder, four felony counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and a lone felony count of aggravated battery.\nMinutes before, Kirby's knuckles were white as she clenched the hands of her attorney, Jennifer Auger. Kirby otherwise appeared calm as Morgan County Superior Court Judge Jane Spencer Craney prepared to read the jury's verdict.\n"Guilty," Craney declared -- a dozen times.\nKirby broke into incoherent sobbing, clawing at Auger's shoulder. \nAfter hearing 114 testimonies in an 11-day trial, the jury took fewer than 10 hours Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to reach the decision. They accepted deputy prosecutor Tom Iacola's contention that Kirby had been suicidal and intentionally plowed into Thomas Reel's minivan, killing him and his children, Jessica and Brad Reel.\nThe crash -- which police estimate occurred at a combined speed of 159 to 177 miles per hour -- also claimed the lives of Kirby's children Jordan, Joney and Jacob and Jeremy Young, a nephew in her care. \nEach murder count carries a standard sentence of 55 years, which Defense Attorney Tom Jones said he believes will be stacked on the June 7 sentencing. With standard 10-year sentences on the five other convictions, Kirby could face up to 435 years in prison.\n"This woman will never see daylight again," Jones said. \nProsecutors decided against pursuing the death penalty. The defense maintained that a thyroid problem compelled Kirby to drive her white Firebird more than 100 miles per hour southbound down Ind. 67 for 1.7 miles.\n"It's been proven that she was psychotic when she had this accident," Frank Henninger, her visibly shaken brother-in-law, said. "She was a good mother. She loved all her children and herself."\nSeveral of Kirby's family members shared the sentiment after Morgan County sheriff\'s deputies led her out the courtroom to a waiting van past a throng of reporters. Kirby, still sobbing, declined to respond to questions shouted at her.\n"She wouldn't have gone to pick up her four kids if she wanted to kill herself," Kirby's sister Kathy Walker whispered while sullenly pacing back and forth with averted eyes outside the Florentine-style brick courthouse. "It was clearly an accident, the hyperthyroidism that made her do it."\nWhile Jones put more than 700 hours of pro bono work into the case on the conviction that Kirby was delusional, he wasn't surprised by the verdict.\n"When you see pictures of seven dead bodies -- six children -- it becomes overwhelming," he said. "And we were afraid of that."\nBut Jones and Auger, his daughter, have still vowed to appeal.\nJury members -- one of whom wept while the verdict was read -- declined to comment. They sent a note to reporters saying it had been a "difficult decision."\nLouise Reel, Thomas' widow, tearily thanked them after the court had adjourned.\n"Justice has been served," she said. "I've been waiting 14 months, and I'm so relieved today. She took away my family."\nLouise Reel said her ordeal has challenged her deeply held Christian faith.\n"Tom would tell us to stay strong and believe," she said. "She took everything from me. Fortunately, I've had wonderful people in my life."\nThe tragedy has also left Miller -- now a high school freshman -- searching for answers.\n"It feels like God's hand was in this," he said. "There has to be a reason. It's something I'll think about for the rest of my life."\nMiller and Reel, who will ask Craney to sentence Kirby to life on the June 7 sentencing, hope for closure.\n"We're going to have a PJ party, with ice cream and pop," a shaking but satisfied Reel said. "I don't think it's inappropriate to celebrate. They would celebrate if she walked out of there, absolutely." \nStill, in spite of the loss of her husband and children, Reel said she doesn't hate Kirby.\n"She did a terrible thing," she said. "It's between her and God. I'm a very forgiving person, but what she did was so wrong"