Brant woman, 24, gets maximum in collision that killed baby

Danielle N. Kellogg was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison, the maximum possible, for causing the November crash that killed an infant.

Kellogg pleaded guilty in March to first-degree vehicular manslaughter.

Kellogg, 24, of Brant, crying as she stood before Erie County Judge Michael D’Amico in a Buffalo courtroom, repeatedly apologized and said she never meant to hurt anyone.

“I know I did wrong,” she said. “I’m ready to do what I have to do. I’m sorry.”

Her conviction stems from the Nov. 27 crash on Southwestern Boulevard in the Town of Brant that claimed the life of 7-month-old Baylee Marie Dion who was in the other vehicle with her mother.

Assistant District Attorney Bethany A. Solek said Kellogg had cocaine and marijuana in her system at the time of the two-vehicle crash.

Kellogg also admitted to authorities that she drank several beers and smoked marijuana before the crash and had been falling asleep, Solek said.

Kellogg’s blood-alcohol content was at least 0.13 percent at the time of the crash, well above the legal threshold, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.

Kellogg was behind the wheel of a 2003 Ford Explorer SUV registered to a Fredonia man at about 9:05 a.m. when she crossed over the center line on Southwestern Boulevard on the Seneca Cattaraugus Reservation, the sheriff’s office said.

She struck a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am driven by Denice Hine of Hamburg, who tried to get out of the way of the oncoming SUV, sheriff’s deputies said.

“I think Danielle can sit in jail for 15 years and think about what she did,” Hine said during today’s hearing. “I will never heal fully and neither will my family.”

Solek and Hine asked the judge to sentence Kellogg to the maximum term.

Toward the end of the hour-long hearing, D’Amico said there was not much he could add to the heartbreaking remarks from both sides.

He noted all the crying in the courtroom.

“The devastation is everywhere. Look around,” he said.

email: plakamp@buffnews.com