Inset: Brooklyn Mae Carroll (GoFundMe), Background: Quinten Kight during his sentencing for killing Brooklyn when he ran her and a woman over with his boat in North Carolina (WRAL).
A North Carolina boater who struck two people on the water — killing a 10-year-old girl and severing a woman’s leg — is going to prison after prosecutors said he prioritized hiding alcohol on board instead of helping the victims.
Quinten Kight, 41, was sentenced to 12 years to just over 15 years behind bars after pleading guilty Monday to second-degree murder, death by impaired boating, driving while intoxicated and serious injury by impaired boating, according to court records.
The Aug. 2, 2025, crash on Shearon Harris Reservoir, near Raleigh, killed 10-year-old Brooklyn Mae Carroll and left Jennifer Stehle, then 41, with severe injuries.
The sentencing hearing Monday was marked by grief and emotional statements from those devastated by Brooklyn’s death.
“I will never be the person I was before August 2, 2025. There will always be someone missing,” Brooklyn’s mother Kim Cannon said, according to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate WRAL. “Every milestone and every ordinary day, I will carry her absence with me.”
Brooklyn’s father, Matt Carroll, described his daughter as “my little buddy and my best friend.”
After the impact, Kight allegedly continued another 150 yards and told friends to “toss everything overboard.” Investigators later recovered 39 empty alcohol cans from the boat and more than 50 additional cans from the water, plaintiffs allege. Officers who encountered Kight reported that his eyes were “red and glassy,” his speech was difficult to understand, and he had a strong odor of alcohol.
More than five hours later, authorities took a blood sample showing he had a blood alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, according to the suits.
“Collectively, Defendants’ reckless and senseless actions and decisions that day caused devastating and irreversible injuries, shattering the lives and wellbeing of two innocent families forever,” the Stehle lawsuit stated.
Kight and Flanigan remain in the Chatham County Jail on $1 million bonds.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Flanigan in September 2025 requested her bond be lowered by half. Flanigan’s attorney, Joshua Xerri, said his client is a recently retired U.S. Army combat nurse who has a 19-year-old son with autism in need of her care.
“Every day that Ms. Flanigan is in jail is a day that her son is not getting the care and support he needs and was getting from Flanigan,” Xerri said, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate WTVD. “There is no allegation from the state that Ms. Flanigan had been drinking, intoxicated, or operating the boat in any way.”
But prosecutors argued Flanigan’s bond should stay the same, even though she was sober at the time of the crash.
“What we have, Your Honor, is someone who had years of watching this guy hurt people when he gets drunk,” District Attorney Jeff Nieman said, per local NBC affiliate WRAL. “She’s the one who handed the keys to a drunk person.”
The post White Claw-drinking boater who killed 10-year-old girl and amputated woman’s leg when he plowed over them learns his fate first appeared on Law & Crime.
