OAKLAND — A Vallejo woman has accepted a vehicular manslaughter conviction and a seven-year prison term for killing a woman in a 2021 hit and run crash, court records show.
Kenya Morris, 30, pleaded no contest on Feb. 25 to vehicular manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a crime, and is set to be sentenced on March 25, court records show. She is at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in the meantime.
Prosecutors say Morris ran a red light and crashed a 2000s model Volvo into 54-year-old Michelle Marbley, of Oakland, who had been riding an electric scooter northbound on 23rd Avenue on a green light. At Morris’ 2023 preliminary hearing, an eyewitness testified the Volvo left, then made a u-turn and slowed down near the accident scene to look at Marbley.
“(Marbley) fell down and stayed there and didn’t get up,” the witness testified, adding that the Volvo, “Looked at (Marbley), who wasn’t moving anymore, and then left” after no more than five seconds.
The crash occurred around 10 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2021, authorities said. Morris was arrested in 2022 at her Vallejo home, only after police put out her picture and asked the public for help locating her.
Marbley left behind two children and six grandkids, her family members said in a public plea for assistance.
“She was like a part of my everyday life. She was very funny, very lighthearted,” Marbley’s daughter said in a video released by the city of Oakland. “My mom was my twin, my best friend. Me and her had a really good friendship.”
After her arrest, Morris was released from jail and stayed out until two weeks before pleading no contest.