The woman who killed three people in a high-speed crash on Rock Creek Parkway in 2023 will spend nearly three decades in prison for the crime.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Rainey Brandt sentenced Nakita Walker to 29 years for the collision that took the lives of a rideshare driver and two passengers after Walker fled a traffic stop moments earlier.
“Today, I take accountability for what happened. I pray for forgiveness because their lives mattered, too. I don’t have any excuses,” Walker said at the hearing. “I didn’t know the victims personally, but I walk with them every day. It was never my intent nor would I ever want to cause harm to you or your loved ones.”
Walker owed more than $12,000 in unpaid traffic tickets in the District and had prior convictions of driving under the influence when she was pulled over early on March 15, 2023.
Charging documents said police first stopped Ms. Walker after she sped through a red light at the intersection of 17th Street and Independence Avenue SW.
“Is there a reason you’re driving like 80 miles an hour, blowing red lights?” A U.S. Park Police officer asked, according to his body camera footage played at the trial.
Walker said she was speeding home to get to her 10-year-old son. The body camera video also documented Ms. Walker’s ex-boyfriend, who was in the passenger seat, pouring out liquor from a cup as the officer approached the car.
Court testimony revealed that the Park Police officer noticed the smell of alcohol and marijuana in Walker’s car during the traffic stop. When the officer asked to see her ID, Walker raced away at roughly 100 mph.
Crash reconstruction experts said her vehicle crossed over the parkway’s double-yellow line and slammed into the rideshare vehicle, killing driver Mohamed Kamara, 42, and passengers Jonathan Cabrera Mendez, 23, and Olvin Torres Velasquez, 22, on impact.
Toxicology reports also found that Walker, 46, had alcohol levels above the legal limit.
A jury convicted her of three counts of involuntary manslaughter, but acquitted her of second-degree murder in April. Judge Brandt’s 29-year sentence, handed down Thursday, was just six months shy of the maximum.
“Three lives were lost because of Nakita Walker’s reckless and violent choices,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said after the sentencing on Thursday. “Their families now carry a grief that can never fully heal. Today’s sentence reflects the profound harm caused and reinforces that fleeing law enforcement and endangering others has devastating consequences.”
Walker had been in custody since she was charged in the crash three years ago.
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