Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Drunk Grandma Ran Over Grandson Waiting For Bus: Police

Episode Date: November 15, 2025

Kristin Anders faces a vehicular homicide charge in Slidell, Louisiana after police said she hit and killed her grandson in their driveway. Slidell Police say Anders was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs when she pulled out of the driveway on Tuesday morning around 7 a.m. Anders' five-year-old grandson, Carson Lawson, was in the driveway waiting for the bus and was hit by Anders' large SUV. The police chief said Carson died instantly. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the horrific case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CRIMEFIX at https://www.oneskin.co/CRIMEFIX  #oneskinpod #sponsored #adHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Tim Jansen https://www.instagram.com/courtroomchef/Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This is any parent's worst nightmare. It was just another morning for a family in Louisiana until a grandmother pulled out of her driveway to leave for work. She fatally struck the child who was killed instantly. I have the story of Carson Lawson's passing, a heartbreaking family tragedy, and why, My police say this accident was entirely preventable. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. This case includes the kind of heartbreak that is really hard to find the words to describe the death of little Carson Lawson has shattered his entire family forever.

Carson was a beautiful five-year-old boy, hidden killed in his own driveway by a woman. woman who loved him dearly, his own grandmother. One moment, little Carson Lawson was waiting for the school bus, and the next, his life was tragically cut short. Carson lived in Slydell, Louisiana, about 35 minutes outside of New Orleans. Here's police chief Daniel Susano at a news conference that day. Shortly after 7 a.m. this morning, our officers responded to the 300 block of Spartan loop which is in the Spartan Tray subdivision in reference to a vehicle that struck a young child in a driveway. The preliminary investigation revealed the child was in the driveway of their home, preparing to leave for school and waiting on the school bus. The child was positioned

in front of his grandmother's 2016 GMC Yukon, which was backed into the driveway. The grandmother who did not know that the child was outside, proceeded to leave for work, drove forward out of the driveway, at which time she fatally struck the child who was killed instantly. Now, this incident happened on Veterans Day. The whole thing is hard to understand. The chief explains the position of the GMC SUVs that Kristen Anders was driving and where Carson was likely sitting when he was hit. The car was backed into the drive. way. And the five-year-old was outside and presumably seated in front of the car. We don't know. And it's obviously it's a big SUV, but he was a tiny boy. And she didn't see him.

Then Chief Susano goes into detail about what happened when officers arrived at the house to investigate. As part of any serious crash investigation, our fatality team investigators checked for impairment of the driver. When our officers began checking the grandmother who has been identified as 55-year-old Kristen Anders of Slidell, she exhibited signs of impairment. The officer conducting the test

happens to be a DRE, which is a drug recognition expert, who were highly trained investigators to detect any signs of impairment. It was determined that Ms. Anders was under the influence of alcohol and central nervous system suppressants. To add to this tragedy, Ms. Anders was placed under arrest for vehicular homicide.

So the police chief, knowing that the grandma, Kristen Anders, was under the influence, all of this starts to make a little bit more sense. Now, I did a little bit of research on a 2016 GMC-U-Con to understand the safety and driver assist features. It's standard that every model comes with a rearview camera, electronic stability controls, and automatic occupants sensing airbags. In this case, though, the rearview camera, it didn't help since the vehicle was actually backed into the driveway.

This Yukon is also equipped with forward collision alerts that should have hinted to the grandma that something was in front of her vehicle, but it didn't. So the grandmother immediately stopped after she realized she had run over something. You know, as far as the events leading up to what happened, all that's still under investigation. It's safe to say that I don't think anybody believes that she knew the child was in front of her car. I think that's very safe to say. But as far as the events leading up to that, and we're still trying to put those pieces together, but she did immediately stop and has been very cooperative with our investigators since the incident.

Now, it's really important to note that Kristen Anders is cooperating with the investigation. She is certainly devastated. And later, I'm going to tell you what Carson's mom is saying about her loss. It's absolutely tragic. But the chief really sums it up here. This is any parent's worst nightmare. I was at the scene this morning, as well as several of the officers you see, behind me.

And this greatly affects all of us. We all have kids or grandkids around this age, the first responders who were there, and to witness this. So it's hard for all of us as a community as first responders. I spoke with the victim's mother several times today. And there isn't anything that I can say to make her feel any better or make this situation better. All we can do is pray for peace.

And I just want everybody to understand that this is a very tragic situation for this family. Because not only did they lose their precious five-year-old child, they're also having to deal with the fact that the grandmother is now under arrest. for this incident makes a bad situation worse we can all cast judgment and come to our own conclusions but nobody i mean nobody wins in this case look it's having to deal with a tragedy like this is just it's horrible for everybody you know it's just there's no words There's no words. Now, with the chief exhibiting this much sorrow and heartbreak, it's hard to imagine what the family is going through.

But it's important to remain neutral in a terrible case such as this while they're investigating. You're trying to vilify anybody. It is what it is. The facts are what they are. It's just unfortunate for everybody that this happened the way it did. So in closing, I just want to say that, you know, we appreciate the prayers, not for us, but for this family. Let's go home tonight. Oh, your loved one's a little closer because, you know, life is precious and we never know when tragedy is going to strike like I did today. And we just need to continue to pray for peace for this family and that they find comfort during this time. Real quick, I want to give a shout out to One Skin.

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What an amazing gift if you have someone in your life as obsessed with skincare as I am. For a limited time, try OneSkin for 15% off using the code CrimeFix at OnSkin.com slash crimefix. After your purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them. we sent you. So to discuss this just absolutely awful, awful case, I want to bring in Tim Janssen. He is a former prosecutor, currently a defense attorney in Tallahassee. Oh my God. Tim, I know you're a dad, I'm a mom. I just can't even imagine you've got a grandmother accused of driving under the influence of not only alcohol, but also some other types of drugs. And hitting and killing

her cute, adorable grandson in the driveway. I mean, what do you do with this case if you get it? It's tragic. One, why is the child sitting in the driveway in the dark? Why wouldn't someone be sitting with them? Why is she using drugs and alcohol prior to 7 a.m.? And then backing up, the grandmother had to know that the child's bus stop or gets picked up right in front of the house.

but it's no excuse she probably was late or she was under the obviously using alcohol from the night before or she got up early and apparently my understanding is prescription pills that she's addicted to so not only did she kill her beautiful grandson she's going to spend five to 30 years in prison yeah i mean it seems like there's no way out of this from the facts that we know as we know them right now i mean i she's going to have a lifetime of guilt surrounding this um but i have a lot of questions too about just in general like did she have the radio on i mean a lot of cars even a 2016 vehicle will have the backup sensors and the um cameras like the rear cameras i'm like were you not paying attention i mean those backup sensors

are so sensitive if your vehicle has one. I mean, like, they'll be like, beep, beep, beep. I mean, like, what on earth was happening? Were you just so intoxicated that that wasn't even alerting you? Well, the cop showed up at seven. So you figure it probably took them 15 minutes to get there. And probably 15 minutes to call. So it probably occurred at 6.30 a.m. central time.

So it's probably dark. It's still dark. and if she gunned it when she was backing up, right, gunning it to get out, even if the sensor went off, she probably would have hit the child anyway, but she didn't say it. She said she heard a thud, which I just can't imagine anything worse. I guess I could if you left a newborn in the car in the heat and the child suffocated and died.

That would be worse. But to be under the influence of drugs that early in the morning, there is no defense to these charges. None. Now, the mother of the child, we don't know if she was the guardian of this child. It says grandmother. So she's at grandmother's house or maybe grandma was at her daughter's house and then leaving. A lot of facts aren't known. But she's going to prison and a beautiful, the kid had the most beautiful smile, the picture I saw, beautiful young, young man, child. well mom was posting on facebook about this so you know i'm assuming mom is you know there with her son like

that she has custody of the son um but carson just oh my god i just can't even imagine um i can't even imagine this poor little child and i'm just at a loss here because um this was so preventable on so many levels. First of all, do not drive while you're intoxicated and under the influence of anything. It's just, it breaks my heart. And I saw the thing says hug your kids. We do. We need to hug our kids every day because these things happen. But it's no excuse. Now, the fact that she's related to the victim and the mother of the child is probably her daughter, they probably have some input on how the case is resolved. But I don't think there's going to be a lot of mercy in this case.

I think the prosecutor is going to see that there was, it's one thing if you backed up accidentally, not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, it was dark, but it's another thing when you're definitely under the influence over the legal limit, you committed a vehicular homicide. And you should be punished appropriately. I could easily get in 25 years, rest of her life. I just can't see a lot of mercy in this case either.

I could be wrong about that. I mean, it's a family tragedy, but also it's a tragedy that was so easily preventable, especially because this wasn't like, oh, my God, it was dark and I just totally didn't see. I mean, if you're grandma and you're living together, you know when your grandson is out at the bus stop, or at least you should know when he's out at the bus stop. And you're intoxicated, allegedly. That's the allegation. Allegedly.

That's the allegation. She blew over the limit and she had drugs in her system. That's sufficient to charge. You know, a good lawyer is going to say, well, you can't prove what effect the drugs had because it's hard to extrapolate what effect it had. She could have taken the pills last night. But you had alcohol and she blew up. over the limit, that's sufficient. And the combination together is more than enough. And I don't

think she's going to go to trial. I think this is going to be a worked out plea, but it's a sad case. Yeah, it's incredibly sad. And it may be resolved by plea. But I could totally see the prosecutor in this case saying she's got to do some time for this. It doesn't matter if maybe the family doesn't want it or, you know, we don't know what the family wants. But I could see them saying she's got to do some time for this. We get cases and we get some sad cases. We recently had a case where a client hit a bicyclist, killed him, and there was alcohol involved. And it wasn't a matter was he going to prison. He was. I mean, it's just a terrible tragedy. And there really isn't that much you can do. You can try to give sympathy to the family, try to explain.

and give mitigation, what the person did all their lives, were they a beneficial person? And was this a mistake? But still, ultimately, you have to go to prison. We have to send a message that these crimes have to be punished. So that the next person getting out or thinking about taking drugs and driving, think twice about it. Yeah, it's horrible. Tim Jansen, thank you so much for your time. I'm so sorry we had to talk about something so horrible.

Right. A little Carson. Poor little Carson. Rest in peace. Not that we talk about great subjects anyway, but this was extremely a poor, innocent kid. I saw the pictures and it's just heartbaking. He looked like such a beautiful young kid, smiling and happy. I hate it. A child. He's a beautiful boy. Thank you, Tim. Thank you. Good seeing you again. Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is horrific for Carson's parents. Absolutely horrific. His mother posted on Facebook. There is absolutely nothing in this world that I could say to truly express the sorrow I will now and forever have in my heart. Yesterday morning, my baby boy Carson passed away. My baby boy is gone. His unexpected death and the way he went was the most traumatic and devastating scenario I have ever had to endure. He was so loved by so many and I am thankful to everyone who has been with me or reached out. Carson knew how much we loved him.

I am devastated and completely broken. I will never be the same. And I'm asking for privacy at this time to grieve my baby who was gone way too soon. Details of his services will be public soon as we finalize them. We know that we would like to hold one here in Slydell, Louisiana and another in Jonesboro, Georgia. But for now, please respect our privacy as we begin our journey with mourning, this devastating loss. When everyone asks me if I need anything during this time, time. I truly do not know what to say, but I appreciate the thoughts. I don't know what to do or really what comes next. Other people have graciously set up some accounts for me, and I will include the links below. And we have included those links below in our description as well. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I will see you back here next time. Thank you.