Vehicular homicide case to go back to the Grand Jury

District Attorney Joe Mulholland says a vehicular homicide case involving two Grady County teenagers will have to go back before a grand jury next month. Mulholland says his office plans to dismiss an original indictment against Anna McBride, but tighten the language in the warrant. He said the updated case will then be presented to a Grady County Grand Jury in September to determine whether McBride should be indicted on the new warrants. “The language of the warrants that were taken, I think, could have been a little more specific,” Mulholland says.

Levi Knop, 18, was killed in the tragic accident on Jan. 29. McBride was set to be tried next month on charges of felony vehicular homicide, reckless driving and speeding. Mulholland did not say specifically what language he planned to change in the warrants.

The district attorney says whenever a case is prosecuted, the state has certain elements it must prove depending on the charges. “That makes the juror’s job easier and puts the defense on notice of what we’re going to do so they can prepare the defense,” he says.

Mulholland says he hopes the new language presented to the grand jury next month will result in a new indictment. He said if that happens, an arraignment could take place in October with pretrial hearings in November and a trial in December.

Both Knop and McBride were high school seniors on their way to different schools when the accident happened on U.S. 319 around 7:45 a.m. The original indictment alleged McBride was driving 116.8 mph when her car slammed into the back of Knop’s pickup truck and caused him to run off the road and crash into a tree in the median. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Knop attended Scholars Academy at Thomasville High School and is the son of Joy and Marshall Knop.

McBride, daughter of Mrs. Karen Poole and Dr. Jeremy Poole of Cairo, attended Brookwood School.