Insets, from left: Mattix White (Benton County Memorial Park) and Katie White (Benton County Detention Center). Background: The area near South 47th Street and West Poplar Street in Rogers, Arkansas, where authorities say Mattix was struck by her vehicle (Google Maps).
An Arkansas woman, 26, has been sentenced to prison after authorities said she ran over and killed her 11-year-old stepson while letting him run beside her moving vehicle.
Court records show Katie White received a four-year prison term after pleading guilty to negligent homicide, aggravated assault of a family member and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the death of Mattix White.
During the hearing, Mattix’s father, Brent White, made clear that no resolution could ease his grief. “Ma’am, I’m never going to be happy,” he told Judge Robin Green when asked about the plea agreement, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I lost my son.”
Katie White, addressing the court, said that no sentence imposed by a judge could compare with the punishment she already feels inside.
“The weight of this tragedy will be something I live with the rest of my life,” she said, according to the report.
The fatal incident happened around 8 p.m. on April 13, 2025, near South 47th Street and West Poplar Street in Rogers, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police were called to the scene for a crash involving a pedestrian and arrived to find Katie White performing chest compressions on the child.
Mattix was taken by paramedics to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
White told cops that she worked for a company that cleaned a nearby car dealership. She drove to the dealership with her children to let a co-worker inside the business.
She unlocked the door and briefly went inside with the kids. As White drove away, she quickly realized one of the children had been left behind. That child got back in the car but was upset about being left behind. To comfort the sibling, Mattix voluntarily got out of the car and began running alongside the vehicle — to show that White would not drive away and leave him.
In all, the boy ran with the vehicle for about 280 feet.
White told police that when she “attempted to accelerate for a brief second,” she did not realize that the boy had grabbed the door handle.
Mattix fell, was pulled under the vehicle and was run over.
White exited the car and attempted chest compressions but did not know how to perform them. She then called 911.
Cops concluded that by allowing the boy to run alongside the car, she created a “substantial risk of serious injury or death.”
According to a GoFundMe, the White family experienced a tragedy about five years prior to Mattix’s death when his mother died. His obituary said he was the only boy in a family with four sisters whom he “absolutely adored and loved to make laugh.” He loved to play basketball, Fortnite and Sonic the Hedgehog.
“Mattix and his father, Brent, shared the most beautiful bond,” the obituary reads. “Whether they were shooting hoops, telling jokes, playing video games, or just simply in each other’s presence, the love between them was pure and deep. Brent was his hero and Mattix was so proud of his last name and loved being Canadian.”
Katie White and Brent White were divorced earlier this year, according to a listing of divorces posted in the Democrat-Gazette.
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