Ponchatoula Woman Convicted of Vehicular Homicide
March 28, 2025
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on March 25, 2025, 26-year-old Kendall Morris of Ponchatoula was found guilty of Vehicular Homicide, First degree vehicular negligent injuring and two counts of Vehicular negligent injuring after a judge trial before Judge Scott Gardner. The defendant previously waived her right to a jury trial in the case. Assistant District Attorneys Taylor Nicholson and Gary Tromblay prosecuted the case. Deputies Ryan Moring and James Runyon with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Department led the investigation.
According to trial testimony, deputies with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office were dispatched shortly before midnight on January 13, 2024, to a single-car accident on Archie Singletary Road near Pearl River. Upon arrival, deputies found an overturned Honda SUV partially in the roadway. It was determined there had been four passengers in the vehicle in addition to the driver. Evidence on the scene indicated the driver lost control of the vehicle while attempting to navigate a curve in the roadway. The vehicle left the roadway and struck several trees, causing the vehicle to flip upside down before coming to rest. Three of the four passengers were ejected during the crash. One of them, 36-year-old Jeremy Duncan, suffered fatal injuries. The remaining three passengers and the driver, Kendall Morris, sustained non-fatal injuries and were transported to local hospitals for treatment.
During the trial, prosecutors introduced evidence that Morris was significantly impaired by alcohol at the time of the accident. Tests conducted by the hospital during its treatment of Morris indicated her BAC was 0.27, more than three times the “legal limit” for operating a vehicle. Additionally, deputies obtained a court order less than three hours after the accident authorizing law enforcement to take a blood draw from Morris. That blood sample was later sent to the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory in Baton Rouge for analysis. The results indicated Morris had a BAC in excess of 0.20, consistent with the hospital’s test results.
Throughout the trial, defense counsel asserted Morris was not the driver of the vehicle when the accident occurred and therefore was not guilty. Prosecutors countered the defense’s claim by introducing various testimony and evidence. One of the passengers testified that when the overturned vehicle came to a rest, Morris was still secured in the driver’s seat by her seatbelt and was suspended upside down. Two passengers had to free Morris from her seatbelt before she could exit the vehicle. Photographs taken of Morris at the hospital were introduced into evidence, depicting bruising across the defendant’s chest in a diagonal pattern consistent with the positioning of the driver’s seatbelt. A DNA expert testified that blood stains collected from the driver’s airbag were tested and determined to contain DNA consistent with the defendant’s DNA profile. Medical records reflected Morris told one of the treating physicians her last memory before the accident was of her driving the vehicle. Furthermore, video from the body-worn camera of the deputy who interviewed Morris at the hospital after the accident was introduced during the trial. In the video, Morris initially said “Sarah” was driving, then said “they” were driving and then conceded she was the driver. Deputies confirmed there was no one named Sarah in the vehicle on the date of the incident.