Corbin woman wanted by police arrested overnight

KELLY

A Corbin woman, who has eluded police since being indicted late last year in connection to a 2021 fatal crash, was arrested overnight.

Danielle M. Kelly, 39, faces charges of murder and three counts of first-degree assault after being indicted Nov. 18, 2022, by a Laurel County grand jury. Kelly allegedly failed to appear in court for the grand jury hearing of her case and had remained on the run from police ever since.

According to Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington, public affairs officer at KSP Post 11 in London, an anonymous tip was received late Tuesday night regarding Kelly’s whereabouts. Troopers were dispatched to a residence on Jeff Bargo Lane in Knox County to investigate.

After arriving at the residence, a woman, identified as Nikki Fairchild, allegedly told troopers that Kelly was not there. Troopers later found Kelly hiding in a closet at the home.

Kelly was arrested without incident and placed in the Laurel County Correctional Facility.

Fairchild was also arrested. Online court records show she was charged with giving an officer false identifying information, failure to notify of address change and first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension.

Since Kelly’s indictment, there had been reports made to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department regarding her location with possible sightings ranging as far away as Lexington and Richmond.

Kelly was wanted in connection to an incident that occurred on Sept. 14, 2021, in which Kelly was driving southbound on US25 when her vehicle allegedly crossed over into the northbound lane, where her vehicle sideswiped a Ford van before hitting a Chevrolet Tahoe head-on. The vehicles came to a stop along the roadway blocking traffic.

The driver and passenger of the Tahoe, identified as Shawn Pridemore and Jacolby Lawrence, respectively, were both seriously injured and were airlifted from the scene to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington for treatment.

Kelly and an infant passenger also sustained serious injuries that required them to be airlifted from the scene. Another of Kelly’s passengers, Tiffany Smith, was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in London, where she was soon pronounced dead.

The driver of the Ford van was not injured in the crash.

Kelly manifested “extreme indifference to human life” and “wantonly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to” others, according to her indictment. The indictment does not indicate that Kelly was intoxicated at the time of the crash.

Both Kelly and Fairchild currently remain jailed.