Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom Allegedly Tried Killing Daughter by Driving Car Into Lake: 'Get That Baby!'

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Kalyna Young, 21, faces several charges including attempted murder and child abuse after sheriff's deputies said she intentionally drove her car into a lake with her two-year-old daughter inside. Witnesses saw the car and Young and her daughter in the water and sprang into action. Deputies said Young gave an explanation for her actions. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy has video of the dramatic rescue what the man who saved the little girl said in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Use the code LAW15 for 15% off at citybeauty.com/LCCrimeFix. That’s promo code LAW15 for 15% off your order!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Dr. Dana Anderson https://www.instagram.com/dr.dana_andersonJonna Spilbor https://www.instagram.com/jonna_spilbor/CRIME 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/lawandcrimenetworkSee 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. Go, baby, get that baby. Go get that baby. A man jumps into a lake to save a two-year-old girl after deputies say her mother drove her car into a lake. Now her mom is behind bars facing charges. I'll lay out the sad case out of Tennessee and how that little girl is now doing. I'm Anjanette Levy and this is Crime Fix. It was a sunny day last Saturday afternoon at Boone Lake in Tennessee when something went terribly wrong. A car went into the lake. Sadly, sheriff's deputies in Washington County, that's about 100 miles northeast of Knoxville, say that car ending up

in the water was no accident. The sheriff says Kalina Young, a mother of a two-year-old little girl, drove her car into Boone Lake intentionally. Luckily, there were people around who sprang into action to help Young young and her little girl. A man named Chris Patrick told me that he couldn't even swim, but his wife told him to jump in the water to save the baby. Take a look. Get that baby.

Hurry up, Chris. Please. Go. Get that baby. You got to get that baby. You got him? Get him, baby. Can you get to the deck where she's at? Go to the deck where she's at. Hold it up. That video just gets me. And get this. When Chris Patrick and his family were at Boone Lake that day, they say they weren't even at the right location for the party they were supposed to

attend. They were getting ready to leave when they saw the car in the water and they just happened to be there. Chris Patrick jumped into the lake wearing jeans to save that little girl. It was a disturbing scene and witnesses helped Young and her daughter. A sheriff's incident report says Young told a first responder, I'm going through a lot right now and I just want to be with my daughter and God. According to the EMT, Young admitted that she bought two steel alcoholic beverages about an hour before she drove her car into the water. Deputies noted they found two of those in the vehicle, one of them in the little girl's car seat. Young is now behind bars facing serious charges of attempted first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and neglect, reckless endangerment and driving under the

influence. Now in that video, the little girl was floating in the water. She was treated at the scene and released to family members and thank goodness she is okay. You know, I cover some really sad, difficult cases here on Crime Fix, and I'm able to do that because we have sponsors like City Lips. City Lips is a lip plumper. I have it right here, and it's made my lips actually look 10 years younger. I'm on camera all of the time, so I need to look my best. City Lips is not like those painful lip plumpers that sting and burn. It actually gives you fuller, healthier, and younger-looking lips. I used it for two weeks, once in the morning and once at night, and let me tell you, I've noticed a major difference. They even have a 60-day money-back guarantee, so why not try?

Here's how it works. City Lips uses clinically tested ingredients like hyaluronic acid spheres, peptides, and soothing moisturizers for long-lasting comfort. Just swipe it on clean bare lips and experience immediate hydration. And with continued use, women have experienced even more dramatic results. To get this game-changing all-in-one lip solution, click the link in the description, scan the QR code on your screen, or go to city comm slash LC crime fix use the code law 15 for 15% off that's promo code law 15 for 15% off of your order I spoke with forensic psychologist dr. Dana Anderson about how a person actually gets to the point

where they would drive their car into a lake with their young child. As a forensic psychologist, I am court appointed to evaluate individuals like this and provide a psychological assessment. And during these interviews, I'm able to find out a lot more information about what that individual was thinking and feeling leading up to the time of the event. And I've also worked inpatient in a psychiatric unit for many years where I assessed thousands of individuals who were suicidal and many people who are also homicidal. And one of the things that I've learned is that depression, if untreated, can lead to someone having thoughts about wanting to harm themselves and also potentially be homicidal. There can be a state of mind where they're in absolute despair,

and maybe they don't feel that there's another alternative for them. And they may, a lot of times people can be more planning, or they're thinking this out over a period of time as a way to end their suffering or pain. Or sometimes it could be more impulsive and they have not been planning it for very long. There's a number of factors to look at when interviewing an individual. And very commonly, what I see in my line of work is that there's also a component of substance use that maybe they're using to cope as a way to avoid pain or suffering. And in this case, we can see that she was consuming some alcohol prior to the event. So the court, if she's incarcerated right now, and it sounds like she wasn't psychiatrically hospitalized,

I hope that in jail, they give a tox screening to assess if there's any other substances that are influencing her mental state and also assessing her mental health to obviously get treatment because I do see individuals who are incarcerated who are suicidal or homicidal and there's a risk for them to harm themselves again so I assess to make sure that they don't commit suicide in custody or there's other risk factors to look for. In this case, her defense should probably is going to evaluate her for competency to stand trial or even insanity. Jonna Spilbor is a criminal defense attorney and also a host here at Law and Crime. Jonna, how do you defend Kalina Young? I mean, the evidence is pretty overwhelming here and this is a woman who

obviously was in a desperate state and suicidal but also according to law enforcement tried to kill her young toddler in what sounds like a really terrible way yeah these cases are always so difficult but you can't analyze a case like this you can't analyze a case like this. You can't defend a person like this without digging deep into their mental state. I'm not saying this is going to be a case where legal insanity rules the day, but we now have levels. When we talk about legal insanity, it feels like for the most part, that defense has gone by the wayside. But we can't ignore, Anjanette, people suffer from mental infirmity all the time in day-to-day life. This is an extreme example of that. If we're going to believe the statements that she made to law enforcement after this happened, that she

wanted to kill herself, she wanted to be with God and take her child with her, obviously something is not right. And that's going to have to be explored when you defend her in criminal court. It has to be. She took, I mean, this took some thought. I mean, she drank alcohol. She admitted to that. They found the alcoholic beverages in her vehicle. And so this is something that actually took some forethought, and that's part of the problem here. She wanted to take her own life, she said. She wanted to be with God. But she could have easily given her daughter over to her parents. She could have cried for help. This was ultimately a cry for help. She ended up outside of the vehicle with her little girl, so maybe she had second thoughts about it once she actually got into the water. But I just, it's so heartbreaking to me because she obviously had something wrong going on up here. But, you know, she's facing an attempted murder charge. She could go to prison for an incredibly long time. And that also begs the question, right? She's the mother of a young child. Now you would think that she didn't wake up one day, you would think, and all of a sudden make this horrible decision. Were there signs along the way? Was she under the care of a

physician? Was her child under the care? At that age, they usually are under the care of a physician? Was her child under the care? At that age, they usually are under the care of a physician. Why did this not get noticed or did it? Maybe we'll find that out before it got to this extreme point. You know what it reminded me of? I don't know if you will remember this. Susan Smith. Susan Smith took her two young children. I think at the time they might've been three and five, put them in the car, drove the car into a river and claimed that somebody carjacked her and did it. And why did she do that? She did it because she wanted to be not a mother anymore.

So she could date. And then, and then to add insult to injury after she was in prison, she was doing like prison dating apps. To me, that's a whole different ball of wax obviously she had something wrong with her too but that we can have more sympathy for this mother at least at this early stage with what little we know than a person like susan smith but again interesting we've covered uh we've covered susan smith extensively here Crime Fix, and that is a whole, as you just mentioned, a whole other thing.

I mean, that is a woman who watched her children drown and did it because she wanted to be with a man who didn't want children. So that is completely different. This is a woman who's saying, I wanted to be with God and my child, and I was having a very, very hard time. And this is how she decided to address that issue instead of seeking help. I mean, Jonna, I hate to think about what could have happened if these bystanders who just happened to be in the right place, they were actually in the wrong place. They were at the wrong location for the party they were attending, but they saw this unfold and jumped in the water to help Kalina

Young and her young child. So, I mean, they are heroes here and helped rescue, obviously, the toddler who is now safe with grandparents and Kalina Young, who really needs probably some serious mental health help. Serious. And I guess that's the one saving grace, right? Now that this has happened, this young child and Kalina are going to be in the family court system so that this child will now be under the watchful eye of a family member and the court, because look, the court now has to decide, the family court, whether or not Kalina can ever be a parent again. So this child will be a part of that system. Now that child will get some sort of protection. And my question always is, because I do criminal defense and I do family court daily, what happened up to now? Was the court not involved up until this horrific

event? It seems unlikely, but I guess we'll have to explore those details as we get more into this case. And it begs the question too, where is the father of the child and did that somehow, is this part of her having a hard time recently? We don't know. There's a lot of information we don't know. And I had requested an interview with the sheriff's office, but they aren't commenting on this case right now. You know, the evidence here appears to be very overwhelming. Jonna, do you see this case being resolved with some sort of plea agreement or something where they don't necessarily send her to prison,

but maybe she does get some treatment or maybe she does go to prison. I just don't know. I know we're very early on in the process. Or some combination of both. I think the first thing that'll happen is an exploration of her mental health. And again, given the age of this child, it may be that Kalina was suffering from some sort of postpartum depression. We don't necessarily want to lock people up for that, but here's what happens if that goes untreated. Here's an extreme example of that. So this will have a very medical, psychological component to her defense, and that certainly is going to take time. And again, the good news is with the child safe, they can take all the time in the world to

explore that. But cases like this tend to not go to trial. They tend to really do result in a plea agreement because the goal is to get mentally healthy and to make sure that the child remains healthy and their wellbeing and they're well cared for. So I don't think, you know, unless they wanted to throw the book at her, but there is a sympathy factor for young mothers in this situation, especially if a doctor comes in and says, there was an organic reason for this, fueled by the alcohol, et cetera, but all connected nevertheless. This really is an incredibly sad case, and we will keep an eye on it as it moves through the court system.

But really, the important part here, thank God, is that that little girl is okay. And the people, Chris Patrick and his wife, who were standing by, and Chris Patrick couldn't even swim and jumped into the water to rescue that child. I mean, thank God she is safe. Jonna Spilbor, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it as always. Jonna Spilbor Always a pleasure. Thank you, Anjanette. Annette Levy And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Annette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.