Inset left: A.J. Scott (City of Buchanan). Inset right: Isabella Chinchilla and Kylie Lindsey (Facebook). Background: The section of U.S. Highway 27 close to where Scott’s car accident resulted in the tragic deaths of Chinchilla and Lindsey in Bremen, Ga. (Google Maps).
A Georgia man will spend the next 10 years behind bars for a decade-old crash that took the lives of two teenagers, a judge ruled Wednesday.
In August, a Carroll County jury found Anthony James “A.J.” Scott, 36, guilty on five out of six charges, which included two counts of causing serious injury by vehicle, as well as individual counts of second-degree vehicle homicide, speeding, and reckless driving.
That conviction saw Scott lose his job as mayor of Buchanan – a tiny town located roughly 55 miles due west of Atlanta.
As a consequence, the ex-mayor will be incarcerated. During a sentencing session marked by both blame and understanding, Coweta Superior Court Judge Erica Tisinger handed down a 20-year sentence, with ten of those years to be spent in state prison.
Judge Tisinger reflected, “It’s been a long 10 years,” as reported by Atlanta’s NBC affiliate WXIA. “It has taken a long time to reach this phase in the trial. I cannot begin to fathom your feelings, your anguish, and your sorrow.”
At the time of the crash, Scott was a Georgia State Trooper.
On the evening of September 26, 2015, Scott was driving his patrol car at 90 mph in a 55 mph zone along a dark and slippery section of U.S. Highway 27 – without using lights or a siren – when he collided with a Nissan Sentra operated by Dillon Wall while reducing speed to around 65 mph.
This collision left Wall with a fractured skull, his companion Benjamin Finken with a severe brain injury, and led to even more tragic outcomes for two others: 16-year-old Isabella Chinchilla and 17-year-old Kylie Lindsey lost their lives.
Impact statements took aim at the ex-trooper and sacked mayor.
“I’d like to ask A.J. Scott what he was doing 10 years ago today,” Kylie’s mother said, according to a courtroom report by Court TV. “I was burying my daughter 10 years ago today, because you killed her.”
The judge felt compelled to address the timing of the proceedings. The sentencing hearing was apparently inadvertently scheduled on the anniversary of Isabella’s and Kylie’s funerals. Tisinger said she did not realize this confluence and apologized to their families.
Kylie’s father also directly addressed the defendant: “I just have one question for you … why?”
Wall himself, who lived to tell the horrific tale about the night of the crash, had a stark condemnation for Scott – addressing the disgraced officer’s behavior during and after the incident.
“I cry every night … because of this man right there,” the survivor said. “He doesn’t do anything but smirk at me and smile at me.”
Wall reportedly went on to accuse Scott of lacking remorse during his trial, and even criticized the killer’s defense attorney. This line of commentary eventually drew an intervention from the judge.
“Mr. Scott had no intention to harm anyone,” Tisinger said, WXIA reported. “But those actions have consequences.”
But it was not just the victims and their families with harsh words.
Senior DeKalb County District Attorney Heather Waters reportedly told the court the carnage on the roadway was solely due to Scott’s speeding and echoed the notion that the now-convicted man had never shown remorse for his actions.
As if on cue, just before sentencing, Scott’s defense attorney read a letter penned by his client apologizing for the fatal crash.
Scott, for his part, took the stand during his trial and confirmed his speed, the lack of lights and sirens, and acknowledged that he was not even responding to a dispatch call at the time, according to a courtroom report by Atlanta-based Fox affiliate WAGA.
Prosecutors haltingly tried the defendant in 2019 – proceedings that ended in a mistrial after prosecutors failed to turn over information about the seating arrangements of the victims. Multiple delays pushed the two-week retrial back to earlier this summer.
Ultimately, Scott was convicted of Isabella’s homicide, but not Lindsey’s homicide. During the sentencing hearing, Isabella’s mother pleaded with the judge to impose the maximum sentence because the victims received “a life sentence.”
Instead, Tisinger issued the sentence in line with a recommendation issued by the Peach State’s Department of Community Supervision.
