A Kansas mother convicted of manslaughter in a 2022 car crash that killed three Girl Scouts — including her daughter — has questioned the fairness of her trial and expressed hope that she would avoid prison during a recorded jailhouse phone call.
Amber Peery, 35, was found guilty in August of three counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of traffic violations in a crash on the Kansas Turnpike after she made an illegal u-turn and her car was struck. semi truck.
In a series of calls hours after he was found guilty, Peery alleged judicial misconduct. “It was rigged,” he said, adding, “I feel like the jurors (expletive) were paid or something.”
In the September call, Peery was optimistic that he would be tested. “It’s a two-star hotel holiday and that’s it,” he said with a smile.
The recordings were played during Peery’s initial sentencing hearing on Friday.
Amber Peery was in court Friday afternoon for the first day of her trial.
The incident occurred two days after a mother with a reputation for killing her children was denied parole in South Carolina. A state parole board has denied a request to be released from prison by Susan Smith, who was convicted in 1995 of drowning her two young sons in a case that sparked outrage over the murder of their own mother.
Peery, whose sentencing was continued until Dec. 3, was driving five girls in her van on Topeka’s I-335 on their way to a Girl Scouts event Oct. 8, 2022. Two of the children were injured but survived, including her young daughter. .
Peery’s attorneys asked Shawnee County District Judge Jessica Heinen for a “non-custodial sentence,” saying he is enduring mental health issues that can be better treated outside of prison. Peery’s supporters also say that his two living children would benefit from his presence at home.
The families of the victims are following a harsh sentence.
What Amber Peery said in the cell rings
At one point during the jailhouse call, Peery said, “I wish I had taken the plea.” He appears to have refused the prosecutor’s request that he plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder without wanting to drop the third.
In the September call, Peery said the driver of the semi “should have seen my (faulty) blinker and brake.” He said he never saw the truck. “I really didn’t know what (the comment) hit me,” he said. “I thought a bomb had gone off.”
In another call, he said that his car had a fault in its handling. “Everybody has hammered this (expletive) (expletive) on me,” Peery said.
At one point, Peery weighed how her beliefs would affect her chances of raising her children.
“Kansas wants to keep families together. This is a story that shouldn’t be taken away from my children,” Peery said, before admitting the trial would make it difficult.
“It was a real accident though,” Peery added. “I hope the judge sees it.”
In an October video call, Peery said of the prosecutor: “He’s just … you know.”
“They are being honest with me, I understand that other families are also suffering,” he said before being cut off by a voice behind someone on the phone.
Amber Peery looks back at supporters in the gallery during Thursday’s preliminary hearing at the Shawnee County Courthouse in Topeka, Kansas.
Amber Peery: ‘I didn’t kill three children. I’ve been in a car accident’
Peery walked around the jail cell and blamed the Kansas Highway Patrol for what he thought was a botched investigation.
“It was all directed at me,” Peery said. “It’s not good. It’s not necessary.”
He also blamed the truck driver and made it appear as if he flashed his lights denying his guilt in an illegal U-turn. And he also accused other parents of lying on the stand during his trial.
This photo showing what happened in the Oct. 8 triple crash on the Kansas Turnpike southwest of Topeka is part of a Kansas Highway Patrol crash report detailing the circumstances of that crash.
Later in the video, he said he read an article in a newspaper while in prison. “I just cried,” Peery said. “I’m tired. There was an accident. I didn’t kill three children. I got into a car accident.”
What happened in the fatal crash of the Topeka Girl Scouts?
Peery was driving the children as part of a three-car convoy heading to a Girl Scouts event in Tonganoxie, about 35 miles away, but she and other drivers took the wrong turn onto the Kansas Turnpike south of Topeka. The southbound lanes have no roads or legal turnpike areas for 30 kilometers, so three drivers made illegal U-turns through a hole in the turnpike wall.
The first two cars went well. But Peery’s car was hit by a semi truck, killing three girls and injuring two other children with Peery.
This statement by driver Amber Peery was part of a Kansas Highway Patrol accident recently discovered by The Capital-Journal.
Peery has been held in the Shawnee County Jail since August 15, the day the jail sentenced him at the end of a four-day trial. That day would also have been the 11th birthday of one of the victims, Kylie Lunn.
Kylie, who was 9 years old was killed in the hole; Laila El Azri, who was also nine years old; and eight-year-old Brooklyn Peery, Peery’s daughter. The injured were their daughter who was five years old at the time Carrington Peery and also Gabriella Ponomarez who was nine years old.
This article originally appeared on the Topeka Capital-Journal: Mother’s discovery in Kansas Girl Scouts death reported in jail cell phone call.