Oklahoma officer gets 9-year prison term for fatal wreck

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma City-area police officer has been sentenced to nine years in prison for killing an 18-year-old motorist in December 2019 while speeding to deliver keys to another officer.

During sentencing Wednesday, Moore police Sgt. Kyle Lloyd also received a nine-year suspended sentence in the crash that killed Emily Gaines of Moore.

Investigators say Lloyd was off-duty and driving his personal car at 94 mph (151 kph) in a 50-mph (80-kph) zone when he slammed into Gaines’ car at an Oklahoma City intersection. Lloyd told investigators that he was rushing to deliver an extra set of keys to a fellow officer who had locked himself out of his vehicle.

Gaines, who had turned across the lane in which Lloyd was speeding, was en route to Moore High School to take a college admission examination. Investigators said none of her actions at the wheel had been inappropriate.

Prosecutors had asked for an 18-year prison term, saying the number would remind Lloyd of the age of the person whose life he had taken.

“Instead of enforcing the law, he was blatantly disregarding it,” said Assistant District Attorney SuAnne Carlson.

Lloyd apologized to Gaines’ family in court, saying, “I cannot begin to express my regret,” and adding: “Every day for the rest of my life, I will live with my decisions that morning and my responsibility for taking a life so senselessly from this world.”

Lloyd was still a Moore Police Department employee at the time of his sentencing. In a statement, Moore Police Chief Todd Gibson expressed “sorrow for everyone involved in the tragic event” and said the department will begin an internal investigation now that Lloyd has been sentenced.

The nine-year sentence came a week after a Cleveland County jury recommended a life sentence for for a man convicted of hitting a group of Moore High School cross-country runners in February 2020, killing three runners.