SMSing teen kills woman

2006-10-20 21:08

Atlanta - A 16-year-old girl counted down her suicide attempt through text messages to a female classmate who had rebuffed her sexual advances before crashing her vehicle into an oncoming car, killing a mother of three and injuring the victim's six-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.

"She was actually counting down her imminent threat: 'Nine, eight, seven, six ... I'm going to do it," said Paul Howard, the Fulton County district attorney.

The girl, Louise Egan Brunstad, was charged on Thursday with felony murder for ramming her family's Mercedes head-on into a smaller Daewoo driven by 30-year-old Nancy Salado-Mayo, a native of Mexico.

Salado-Mayo was killed and prosecutors intend to try the teen as an adult. If convicted, she faces an automatic life sentence.

Brunstad had told friends she planned to kill herself after another female student at her school refused to have sex with her, Howard said.

The girl never slowed as she crossed over a turning lane and into oncoming traffic on a busy road in an upscale Atlanta neighbourhood on October 4, witnesses told police.

"She was travelling at a high rate of speed," Howard said. "This is an intentional action."

Salado-Mayo's middle child, Lesly, 6, was in a child safety seat and was treated for fractured ribs and other injuries.

Burnstad's attorney, Drew Findling expressed the family's sadness over the incident, saying they were all "devastated by this horrible accident and by the death of Mrs Salado-Mayo and the injuries of her daughter."

After a memorial service in Atlanta, Salado-Mayo's body was returned to her native Mexico for burial.

Her husband, Mario Bibiano, a steel worker, was unable to attend the funeral because he remained by his daughter's bedside at an Atlanta hospital.

The teenager, who was treated for an ankle injury, was on crutches in court Thursday for a brief hearing on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.

- AP