Kerri Bedrick, Long Island mother charged in crash that killed son, found incompetent to stand trial

The Centerport mother accused of killing her 9-year-old son in a wrong-way crash on the Southern State Parkway in August 2024 is not mentally fit to stand trial, a judge determined on Tuesday.

Kerri A. Bedrick, 34, will be committed to a New York State Office of Mental Health hospital until doctors determine she is competent to return to court, acting State Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz informed her during a brief appearance in Suffolk County Criminal Court.

"I understand, but I don’t agree with it," Bedrick calmly told the judge from a wheelchair in the Riverhead courtroom.

"It’s my decision," the judge responded.

Horowitz informed Bedrick and the attorneys in the case that the decision was made after receiving a report in January from two doctors who performed a court-ordered evaluation of her. Under state law, the legal proceedings against Bedrick cannot continue until she is restored to competency.

Assistant District Attorney James McCormack told the judge prosecutors reviewed the report and confirmed the findings.

Bedrick’s court-appointed defense attorney, Ira Weissman of Central Islip, declined to comment outside of court.

The 21-count indictment against Bedrick includes a top charge of depraved indifference murder, which carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life in state prison, and additional charges for aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, aggravated driving while intoxicated, criminal possession of a controlled substance and fleeing a police officer.

Prosecutors had said Bedrick’s blood tested positive for methamphetamines, which a previous attorney and family members had said were prescribed, following the Aug. 22, 2024, crash that claimed the life of Bedrick's son, Eli Henrys.

"This defendant traveled for miles in the wrong direction while impaired by methamphetamine and with her child in the back seat," McCormack told Horowitz at her September 2024 arraignment. "This horrific crash caused [Bedrick's] child to suffer fatal blunt force injury."

Eli was in the back seat of his mother's 2022 Mitsubishi SUV as she allegedly sped west in the eastbound lanes of the parkway near Carleton Avenue in Islip, causing a multicar collision, according to authorities.

A Suffolk deputy sheriff assigned to DWI enforcement spotted her heading west in the eastbound lanes just after 2 a.m. and gave chase, officials said. At one point, according to prosecutors, the officer was also driving the wrong way on the Southern State, trying to pull her over to the shoulder when he had to stop because of oncoming traffic.

McCormack previously said Bedrick passed eight cars while speeding up to 100 mph in the opposite direction. Eventually a pickup truck swerved out of Bedrick's way before her vehicle was struck by a Honda Civic that had its passenger-side doors "sheared off," he said.

Two other drivers were injured, authorities said at the time, with the crash ultimately ending in a head-on collision with a Mercedes SUV in the eastbound middle lane of the parkway.

Bedrick, who police have said was asking officials to help her son as they arrived at the scene, told investigators she had taken methamphetamines at 8 p.m. the day before the crash, McCormack said. First responders tried to revive Eli, who was pronounced dead a short time later at South Shore University Hospital, officials said.

Prosecutors said the patient's name was ripped off a prescription bottle containing pills that tested positive as methamphetamines.

Bedrick has eight additional open cases since 2023 for aggravated driving without a license, according to court records. Prosecutors have also said she attempted to evade police during a 2012 DWI arrest.

A Newsday investigation last year found Suffolk Child Protective Services caseworkers investigated at least seven complaints against Bedrick since 2018 alleging drug use, neglect and abuse of her son. One report alleged Bedrick had wandered into the Middle Island Fire Department in January 2023 showing signs of hallucinations, paranoia and rage, and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Eli had told caseworkers his mother was hearing voices and that "bad things" were happening at home, but caseworkers deemed the complaints unsubstantiated and took no action, records showed.

Prior counsel for Bedrick also raised in court papers filed last August that the divorced mother was a domestic violence survivor, having suffered abuse that "caused lasting cognitive injuries and other complications that may have impaired" Bedrick's "mental capacity or influenced her actions at the time" of the crash.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.