Hit and Run Driver Thinks She's Getting a Ticket For Murder

And she has anxiety.

OK.

You're a sister?

Yes.

OK.

No, she's my best friend.

I know.

Bleeding out of her head, like, menstruously.

Feeling this way.

She was still alive. She was still breathing intensely, just trying to stay alive.

It wasn't breathing.

I'm going to need you to stay, sir.

OK.

What's that?

He's going to stay sir. He's gonna stay, she's gonna die.

She's going out.

69911, what is the address of your emergency?

The address is Caranover by a car.

Okay, so you said it's a female and she was hit by a vehicle?

Yes. When, on the night of March 26, 2017, Cincinnati police responded to reports of a car crash with an unresponsive victim, they would unknowingly become part of a murder investigation. The victim, 18-year-old Maddy Hart, was found in the middle of the road, unresponsive and covered in injuries. She was found in the middle of the road, unresponsive and covered in injuries. She was rushed to the hospital. Witnesses and friends who were at the scene reported that a fight had broken out, which

quickly escalated when one individual began using their car as a deadly weapon. I don't listen, these girls, these girls pulled up to fight and hop on all the cars. I'm, I'm, let me talk to you.

They ran her over.

Okay, you know those girls? Yes, I know all their names, I can find out their address. They ran her over.

Let me talk to you. It's okay, relax. Have you seen your best friend ran over?

My best friend's killed, okay?

You need to calm down. I bet brain is killed, okay?

Trying to piece everything together, detectives interviewed additional witnesses who described a similar sequence of events. Strangely, however, although all witnesses mentioned the fight and the eventual car crash, some also claimed that gunshots were involved, adding yet another layer to an already complex situation.

Did she get a shot though? It looks like they shot her. She had a bullet wound right here. involved, adding yet another layer to an already complex situation. man. Seriously, she was just, her head was right there, her body was right there, was on the left side of her, underneath her ribcage."

Although the perpetrator had long fled the scene, driving off immediately after hitting the victim, officers already knew who to look for. Friends of the victim not only knew who was involved in the fight, but also where they lived. Interestingly, before law enforcement began looking into possible suspects, the perpetrator, 20-year-old Brianna Benson, turned herself in after initially fleeing the scene. Approximately six hours after the hit-and-run crash, she was questioned at the Cincinnati Police Department.

Do you have your driver's license with you? No, but they're not...

I have to give you everything.

I have insurance and everything.

And you were in the car also?

Yeah, she was in the car. Do you have your driver's license with you?

She don't have a license, but she has an ID. My license is not expired or nothing.

Okay.

And what does this exactly mean for me?

Like, do you know that I'm...

Well, you're in the car, right? But would I be in any trouble, like, if I didn't do anything? At Can you help us?

I am telling the truth, it's not gonna happen. At the time of this interrogation, the exact condition of 18-year-old Maddy Hart was still unknown. She was still battling the severe injuries sustained from the crash at the hospital, tragically passing away four days later.

You said your license is valid? Yes, and I have insurance. four days later. Um... Can you take pictures? You still have those little fingerprints. No, not yet. I saw a bunch of like... Yeah, a bunch of... Like on the right side? Mm-hmm. Back by the back door? Yeah, I saw that.

What were you doing downtown? My sister Maya's home called me. So I answered it, and her friend, she had called me

from my sister's home, like, Strangely, Breanna Benson did not go into much detail about what happened when she arrived at Plum Street to pick up her younger sister, simply saying they were planning to head back home. This becomes even more unusual as Brianna showed up because earlier her younger sister Maya had been involved in a fight with another group,

a group that included the victim, Maddy Hart. Witness statements and court documents revealed that most parties knew the fight was far from over and that it was just about to begin.

I circled, if you look on the video I'll post it to you,

I circled around it three times looking for her. So I finally find her and she, Maya's friends in Maya's driver's seat and Maya's in the passenger.

Now I'm freaking out because she's not on our insurance. I'm like, Maya, why are you letting car, cut my car off, got in her car, and I made them get in the back and me and Jasmine hopped in the car. We was going to drop everybody off. During that time, I hit a bed. I guess I ran into the girls.

Brianna Benson describes the interaction with the other group in a coincidental tone as if they were stopped on their way and not actively looking for them. Several CCTV recordings, however, proved otherwise, showing that she intentionally parked her car while seeking direct engagement with the other group.

I know one of them was Anna for sure because I know that they used to be my sister's best

friend. And it was Anna's sister and I don't know the other girl. That's the girl that got hit doing this. So during that time, I'm at the bin, and when I hit the bin, they, Anna opens up the back door,

Maya's back door, not my back door at the time, opens up Maya's back door, and they're fighting, and so I get out the car,

because she opened, like, fight broke out at 2.55am. And contrary to Brianna's version of events, several recordings prove that she not only confronted the group instead of simply driving away, but she was also a leading force in the fight. She played an active role, directly fighting with the victim, at one point dragging her by the hair and stomping on her face.

In the grand scheme of things, this suggested possible motives such as revenge for the later escalation that caused the death of Maddy Hart. Just over a minute later, at 2.57am, the fight slowly ended. Before Brianna's group got back into the car and drove off, one of her friends picked up items from the ground that had fallen during the fight. One of those items, unknowingly, was Maddy Hart's car keys. Investigators later learned that this small but significant detail was

most likely directly linked to the second altercation that ultimately led to the victim's death.

So I pull off, we leave, and I get down there and now I'm having a panic attack because I don't even know if I'm a minor or not, but the minor lets me know that nobody's a minor, like everybody's above age. So that time I get in my car now with Jazza. Okay. I pull off. I don't even know what street I was on. I guess Plum Street because that's where my car was at. Somehow I end up on

the same street as them. Nine minutes after the initial fight, Brianna Benson had dropped everyone off except her cousin Jasmine and was driving back home. Instead of returning to Northside, however, Brianna took another route and coincidentally drove back onto 7th Street, the very scene where the fight had taken place minutes earlier. According to Brianna, she was unfamiliar with the girls running from my car so I'm like I'm going down the street I get caught

at the light so there's a car coming and I wait on that car and I hit the right but by the time I hit the right the girls already right there so she's in front of my car so I hit reverse so now she's on the side of my car like but I'm parked like in a like an angle a little bit then I reversed, so when I hit reverse, it slid a little bit because I'm on a one-way street. So when I hit reverse, the car slid a little bit,

and I don't know if her leg got caught, I just heard a noise. I'm like, cousin, I think I hit her. She's like, I don't know. I'm like,, so I went straight to my mom's house and I came straight here.

As she drove up 7th Street into Walnut Street, another altercation began when Maddie Hart saw them driving by. It is theorised that Maddie believed the driver, Brianna, or one of the passengers, had stolen her keys. As a result, she was the only one from the group who approached the vehicle, banging on the windshield, which witnesses mistakenly interpreted as gunshots, before eventually being run over, her body dragged under the car for 88 feet. What you doing here?

I don't know. I heard a noise. I'm not gonna sit here and lie like I didn't hear a noise. I did.

So why did you just...

Pull over because there was other girls coming towards my car, and I know that they just, it was mass of them, it was a lot of them, so I didn't know what was going on, and I saw something, like when she was banging on the thing, I saw something black in her hand.

So I didn't know,. And you'll see her running towards my car, her being in front of my car, her banging on my window and everything. And my thing is why is she even in the middle of the street, banging on my window? Like you shouldn't even be close to my car or anything.

Like this is a moving vehicle. Like, and I tried to stay at the stop sign,

like at the light,, at the light.

Were you fighting her?

I don't even know who I fought.

I'm not even going to lie.

There were so many people. I really don't even know who I for real fought. I went straight to my mom and let her know what happened. I came down here.

It's not like I lied, I I was trying to run or anything. But once you got out of the downtown area, I mean you're headed over to kind of stop right there, that you're safe, and then call her.

No, I was calling her.

No, no, like call us. Say, hey, I think I was involved in an accident. I was getting chased down by people downtown.

I was just in such a panic attack, I just wanted to call my mom and get to my mom and have her bring me to the district.

Throughout the interrogation, Brianna maintained that she had a panic attack when Maddie approached the car, claiming she thought Maddie might have a weapon, causing her to reverse the vehicle to get away from the situation and then speed off, accidentally running Maddie over in the process. Several experts later concluded that during the reverse, the tyres turned to the side, indicating that Brianna had aimed the car towards the victim.

So, we watched the video.

And that's what I said. That she was banging on the side.

She was banging on the side.

And somehow, I don't know how she got under it, but she was under it.

Okay. on this side and somehow I don't know how she got under it was she was under it okay it looked to me in the video um that you backed the car up and that you almost positioned

it aiming towards her no there has to be another video on that street because if you look she was in my way it's like she was drunk, like it was like I saw like a demon or something come out the girl. They let these little young girls drink, they're not even allowed to drink. I agree, I agree.

Given the sequence of events, the initial fight, Brianna being the main aggressor who dragged and stomped on the victim, and the unusual route she took while supposedly driving back home, investigators concluded they were most likely dealing with more than just an accident. Run up to my car, put your hands on my car, anything. You don't do that when a car is moving.

You just don't do that. Anything can happen. That's why when it says crosswalk and it says stop, that means stop, because you might get hit. Hey, is my car an impound? Do I have to pay you on it?

Why is it tooken? Or is it just likeket or just like...

We just have it for now.

Yeah, for investigation. I just wanted to make sure I didn't have to pay no ticket.

Now your fee should only accrue once they tell you that you can have the car and you don't go pick it up. Then it starts to accrue fees.

Okay, that's fine.

Following the interrogation, detectives decided that since Brianna Benson had turned herself in and was cooperating with the investigation, she was, for the moment, free to go home.

Day two in the murder trial of Brianna Benson. Police say Benson ran over Maddy Hart outside the Aronoff Center last March. Not on your sides, TJ Parker joins us live with new video showing the moments leading up to Hart's death.

TJ.

Yeah, Kristen, this portion of the trial just wrapped up in the past hour or so.

During the court trial in March 2018, Brianna Benson was charged with murder, felonious assault and hit and run involving serious injury or death. The murder charge was based on the prosecution's claim that Brianna knowingly struck the victim, the question of intent being one of the main elements of the trial. The defense argued that Brianna was scared and overwhelmed by the situation, having just been in a fight earlier and simply trying to get away, which they claimed became impossible

when the victim approached the vehicle and stood in the way. They further highlighted that the circumstances made the situation even worse, claiming that Brianna was disoriented, panicking, and not thinking clearly after being punched during the initial fight. Their goal was to achieve a verdict that emphasized a lack of intent to kill, therefore getting rid of the murder charge.

The prosecution, however, had much more evidence to work with and focused less on Brianna's emotional state. Several witnesses and experts examined testimonies and surveillance video, which, when combined, presented a very different version of events. They concluded that Brianna acted out of anger and directly provoked the second confrontation by driving back to the group.

Most importantly, the unusual maneuver of the car suggested that she intentionally steered toward the victim, dragging her body 88 feet and accelerating away, behavior that pointed to a clear consciousness of guilt.

This whole entire thing really just makes me physically ill. I have this hole in my heart that is going to be there for the rest of my life. And for what?

But now every holiday will be different. We didn't lose somebody to a disease, to cancer. We lost somebody to an accident that my wife said should never have happened, it should never have happened.

In the end, the jury found Brianna Benson guilty of murder, concluding that the crash was not a panic-induced incident. She was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison and is currently held at Dayton Correctional She was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison and is currently held at Dayton Correctional Institution.