4-Time Felon Sentenced to 6 Years for Hit-and-Run Crash that Killed 9-Year-Old Girl

Kevin Lee Payne Jr., 23, pleaded no contest last month to vehicular manslaughter, reckless driving with serious injury and leaving the scene of an accident

Photo: YouCaring/ Monge Family

A California man was sentenced to six years in prison Friday in connection with a hit-and-run collision that killed a nine-year-old girl.

Kevin Lee Payne Jr., 23, pleaded no contest last month to vehicular manslaughter, reckless driving with serious injury and leaving the scene of an accident in the death of Zayda Monge. The crash also injured three others, including two children.

At his sentencing Friday, Payne apologized to Zayda’s family members and friends. “I understand the pain I’ve caused,” he said, according to the Bay City News Service.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy told Payne, “Sometimes simple mistakes have enormous consequences we don’t contemplate,” the news service reports.

Three days after the 2018 crash, Payne turned himself in to the Oakland Police Department and wrote a note confessing to the crime, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

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The fatal accident occurred after the 25-year-old driver of a Toyota Corolla tried to make a U-turn, prompting Payne to slam into the back of the car, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Both cars then rammed into parked cars.

“Based upon video evidence of the collision, [Payne’s] vehicle was being operated at a high rate of speed within a residential zone. The speed was excessive and witnesses observed [Payne’s] vehicle passing another vehicle by going into on-coming traffic prior to the collision,” the affidavit reads.

Payne was previously convicted for burglary, possession of an assault weapon and receiving stolen property, the Chronicle reports.