INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis woman involved in two fatal crashes in three weeks last summer had her trial moved to April. A judge also denied Kelli Anderson's request to be removed from home detention.
Anderson is facing a charge of reckless homicide and six charges of criminal recklessness.
Anderson is accused of causing an eight-car crash at 52nd Street and Keystone Avenue on June 9, 2022, that killed Kiana Burns. Court records say Anderson was driving a white Lincoln SUV that ran into the back of Burns' stopped Pontiac G6 at almost 69 miles an hour. Burns was a mother of four and her mother is now left raising the children.
"I think it's ridiculous, the audacity to ask such a frivolous request ask for the magnitude of what she's done for them to even be considered to be taken off is insane to me," said Ciera Gatling, Kiana Burns' sister.
Just three weeks before, Anderson's car jumped a curb at 49th and Meridian streets, hitting and killing Dr. Brian Dillman as he walked on the sidewalk on May 19.
Anderson is not charged in the crash that killed Dillman. But investigators say that she was told by doctors after that crash that she was a high risk to herself and others and should not drive for six months until cleared by a neurologist. Anderson told doctors she understood.
Allegedly ignoring those instructions led to the criminal charges in Burns' death.
Investigators found Anderson at fault in five more crashes in Marion County in just the past three years:
- Aug. 3, 2019 – Anderson was driving north at 6500 N. Meridian Street when she veered off the side of the road, flipping her black Saturn Outlook in a ditch. When officers talked with Anderson, she said she is epileptic and possibly had a seizure because she did not know what happened.
- Feb. 20, 2020 – Anderson allegedly ran a stop for a stop sign going south on Dean Road at 79th Street and crashed into another car.
- March 9, 2021 – Anderson was driving south on Fall Creek Parkway near the Indiana State Fairgrounds entrance when she ran into the back of another moving vehicle.
- Sept. 2, 2021 – Anderson was traveling south on Allisonville Road when she struck the rear of the car in front of her. The crash caused the other vehicle to spin out and Anderson to veer off the roadway and hit a fire hydrant. She told officers she did not know she was involved in an accident and did not know she hit anyone.
- May 2, 2022 – Anderson was driving south on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street when she veered off the road and struck a light pole. She told officers another car stopped abruptly in front of her and in order to avoid the other vehicle she turned the car left and ran off the east side of the road along the Crown Hill Cemetery brick fence.
Police never ticketed Anderson for a traffic violation in any of those previous non-fatal crashes.
Anderson's driver's license is now suspended. She has a pretrial conference set for early April with a trial date of April 10.
