‘A baby laying in the road’: Mom forced to throw 2-year-old daughter moments before deadly golf cart crash with drunk driver who killed her fiance and 2 children
Insets, from top to bottom clockwise: Austin Harmon, Jada Marlowe, Bentley Marlowe and Michael Marlowe (Iredell County Sheriff’s Office/GoFundMe). Background: The scene of the drunk driving golf cart crash in North Carolina that was caused by Austin Harmon and took the lives of Michael Marlowe and his two children, Bentley Marlowe and Jada Marlowe, in 2022 (WCNC/YouTube).
A North Carolina man was found guilty this week of causing a deadly car crash that took the life of a dad and his two children, along with injuring several others, after court testimony revealed how he slammed into a golf cart the victims were riding in while he was drunk.
“I seen a baby laying in the road,” Todd Lendernan, chief of the Iredell County Rescue Squad, testified during Austin Harmon’s trial earlier this month, according to local ABC affiliate WSOC. “I seen one face down that was deceased. I seen another with people working on it, and I seen the mother and they’re yelling, ‘Please get me more tourniquets!'”
Harmon, 26, was convicted of DWI and felony serious injury by a motor vehicle in connection with the June 2022 crash, which left Michael Marlowe and his two children, Bentley Marlowe and Jada Marlowe — ages 5 and 13, respectively — dead. Michael’s fiancee Amy Mills and their 2-year-old daughter Bailey were severely injured but survived, along with a family friend identified by local media outlets as Teagan Murphy, 16.
“I knew we were going to get hit,” Mills, who had part of one of her legs amputated, testified. “She was so little,” Mills said about Bailey, who suffered a broken jaw and two broken legs. “So, I just threw her. I just threw her and hoped for the best.”
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Harmon was allegedly driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.12 when he crossed a centerline on Fort Dobbs Road in Statesville and slammed into the golf cart carrying the victims. Jada Marlowe survived the initial crash but later died in the hospital.
“I kept saying, ‘I have to find my kid. I needed my kid,'” Mills remembered saying about Bailey after attempting to throw her to safety, according to WSOC. “So, they went and got her, and they sat behind me.”
Murphy, who was friends with Jada, said in court Monday before Harmon was sentenced that she carries “guilt from still being alive while she’s not,” according to Iredell Free News. Michael Marlowe’s father, Ed Marlowe, blasted Harmon for what he did and urged him to find remorse while behind bars, the Free News reports.
“He’s ruined all of our lives forever,” Ed Marlowe said.
It took jurors just six hours to convict Harmon. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of 20 years and maximum of 30 in prison. Harmon declined to speak during the hearing, but his lawyer offered up a statement claiming he was “inconsolable” after what happened.
“He would do anything to go back and undo the events of that day,” attorney Kaleigh Darty told the court, according to the Free News. “He understands the gravity of what was lost to the Marlowe family.”
Drunk mom crashed into canal, left to take bath while toddler drowned: DA
Denette Wilford
Wed, April 16, 2025 at 2:52 a.m. ICT
2 min read
A California woman accused of impaired driving has been charged with murder following the death of her four-year-old daughter in a car crash.
Juliette Marie Acosta, 26, was initially charged with driving under the influence after she allegedly drove into an irrigation canal on March 8 near Hickman, Calif., the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Acosta’s blood-alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors alleged that she left her submerged car while her daughter, Reagan Herrin, was trapped in her car seat.
Acosta was “located taking a bath while her daughter remained in peril at the crash scene,” the DA’s office said.
Reagan was eventually pulled from the car by her uncle, who lives near the scene, the Sacramento Bee reported, but the little girl reportedly died in hospital the next day.
Acosta’s attorney, Gil Somera, told the Independent that the allegation that his client was taking a bath was false.
“Timeline-wise, it’s almost impossible to have done both of those,” Somera told the outlet.
“Time-wise, you can’t go take a bath while your daughter’s drowning if it’s in (a) canal, not next to a home … logically, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Acosta was slapped with a slew of additional charges — including murder — on Friday.
She was detained at a San Francisco hotel after she tried to flee, and her father was also taken into custody for allegedly trying to help her escape, according to the Bee.
“Any suggestion that my client was attempting to flee is completely false,” Somera said.
Acosta is being held without bail, the DA’s office said.
If convicted, she could face life in prison.
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“It’s about whether it’s a manslaughter versus a murder,” Somera told the Independent. “And so I think the public always looks at this and says, ‘Well, you did or you didn’t do it.’
He added: “Guilt is guilt, but it’s the degree of guilt, it’s the circumstances that centre around with punishment is necessary, and right now everyone wants to circle around life in prison to a mother.
Rob Reiner’s Daughter Found Dad’s Body After Massage Therapist Called Her, Didn’t Know Mom Was Also Dead in House: Report
Romy Reiner was reportedly told that her mother was dead by paramedics at the home
Amy McCarthy
Wed, December 17, 2025 at 11:09 a.m. ICT
2 min read
NEED TO KNOW
- Romy Reiner, the daughter of slain actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, discovered her father’s body inside their Los Angeles home on Sunday, Dec. 14
- After she discovered Rob’s body, Romy fled the home without knowing that her mother was dead, The New York Times reports
- Romy was reportedly later told by paramedics that her mother had been killed
Romy Reiner, the daughter of slain actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, was unaware that her mother was also dead inside the Los Angeles home where she discovered the body of her father, according to a new report.
Romy, 27, arrived at Rob and Michele’s Brentwood home on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 14, after she was contacted by a massage therapist who was unable to access the property, the New York Times reported.
After she arrived at the home and discovered her father’s body, Romy allegedly “fled” the home without knowing that her mother Michele was also dead inside, the outlet reported.
She was later told by a paramedic that Michele had been killed, a source close to the family told the Times.
PEOPLE previously reported that Romy discovered Rob’s body on Sunday afternoon, hours before her brother Nick was located by police and arrested near the University of Southern California campus at about 9:15 p.m. that evening. Nick was not at home at the time of the discovery.
Romy is the youngest of Rob and Michele’s three children together, along with brothers Nick, 32, and Jake, 34.
Nick was charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special allegation of using a knife on Tuesday, Dec. 16, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Los Angeles County DA Nathan J. Hochman has also not ruled out the possibility that his office could seek the death penalty in this case.
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“Prosecuting cases involving family violence are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching we face because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes,” Hochman said in a statement. “Rob Reiner was one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation. His murder and his wife of more than 35 years, Michele Singer Reiner’s murder, are shocking and tragic. We owe it to their memory to pursue justice and accountability for the lives that were taken.”
Read the original article on People
