A Wichita mother who used meth and drove over 100 mph with her 5-year-old daughter caused a multi-car accident, which she later admitted she did because she wanted to kill herself. On Thursday, she was given a sentence of more than 18 years in jail.
Seven people were hurt in an accident near Andover on October 23, 2022. Paloma Bella Adame, 28, pleaded guilty on March 1 to attempted first-degree murder and five counts of aggravated battery. The injuries ranged from bruises and cuts to loss of consciousness and a traumatic brain injury. Nine people were taken to the hospital.
The 219-month prison sentence was given by Sedgwick County District Judge Seth Rundle on Thursday morning. Adame was also told to pay more than $3,000 in court and lawyer fees, according to Dan Dillon, a spokeswoman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Adame is still in the Sedgwick County Jail, where she has been since she was arrested on January 12, 2023. She is about to be sent to the Kansas Department of Corrections to finish her time in jail. Dillon said that she will be watched over for three more years after she gets out.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said Adame’s 5-year-old child “was not properly restrained” when she was driving a Kia Sportage at 116 mph, almost at full speed, right before she hit two cars that were stopped at a red light at U.S. 54 and 143rd Street East. From what the court’s probable cause statement says, she was going 92 mph at the time of the crash and had used methamphetamine before it happened.
It took place just before 4 p.m.
People who were there said they saw the Kia flipping and twisting in the air before it fell on top of a family’s car in Florida, crushing the roof over a baby and skidding to a stop. Affidavit says witnesses also said Adame was going too fast, passing on the side, and weaving in and out of traffic without caring about other drivers.
As the statement says, her father called 911 a few minutes before the crash to say that she might be drunk, suicidal, or dangerous to other people because he saw her driving in the wrong lanes, in reverse, and acting strangely on another road. The statement says that Adame’s mother told police that her daughter “seemed paranoid,” had been “behaving strangely,” and said she “could not handle life anymore” in the days before the accident.
Adame’s daughter was “stuck face-first” between the dashboard and the windscreen when witnesses found her. She had a broken leg and injuries to her hip and head. Once Adame was free from the wreckage, she grabbed the girl from a witness who was comforting her and swung her around at people nearby “as if she were trying to fend them off,” the statement says.
The affidavit says she acted strangely at the crash site, using her daughter “as a weapon” against other people, screaming things she didn’t understand, trying to run away, fighting with first responders, and kicking cops who were handcuffing her.
According to the statement, she also said some scary things to hospital staff, like that the crash wasn’t an accident and that she had been planning to kill herself.
