Boat owner arrested in Harris Lake accident that killed girl

A second person has been arrested in the case of a man allegedly driving a boat into a group of swimmers and killing a girl at Harris Lake over the weekend.

On Tuesday afternoon, Annemarie Flanigan, the owner of the boat, was taken into custody and taken to Moore County Jail. Flanigan is the girlfriend of Quinten Kight, who was charged earlier. She's charged with felony death by impaired boating, serious injury via impaired boating and aiding and abetting boating while impaired.

Saturday afternoon's crash came before authorities found 39 empty beer cans in a boat believed to have been operated by Kight. He was charged with driving while intoxicated and unintentionally causing the death of another person.

Kight, 40, faces a felony charge for operating a motor vessel "while under the influence of an impairing substance," unintentionally causing the death of another person, according to an arrest warrant.

Brooklyn Carroll died in the crash. She was 10 years old and a fifth-grader at West Lake Elementary School in Cary.

Jennifer Stehle was also hurt and had to have her leg amputated. Authorities told WRAL News Carroll and Stehle were swimming close to a boat when Kight's boat drove into them. First responders arrived at the lake on 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Ex-wife shocked by crash

Michaela Trujillo was married to Quinten Kight for several years. The two had a life together in New Mexico before losing touch for about a decade. She said Kight has a daughter around the age of Carroll.

"I’m in shock," Trujillo said. "I’m sad. I’m sick. I have a little girl that age. He has a little girl that age. I never thought this would happen."

She said he 'liked to drink a lot,' but not to the point of needing intervention. After this weekend's tragedy, Trujillo said she's surprised by what happened. The two had recently reconnected.

"I had just seen him, and he had just talked about God a lot, and about change, and how he was coming down here to, I don’t know, get a fresh start, and that’s kind of where I am," she said.

DWI charges on water and the road

Questions surface around how Kight was able to operate a boat with the past DWI conviction in 2009 out of New Mexico. That conviction was for his actions while driving a car. More recently, Kight has a 2023 hit-and-run charge out of Moore County. He bonded out of jail in that case.

WRAL News asked the Moore County district attorney why it's taken so long for the hit-and-run case to be taken to trial. We didn’t hear back, but other attorneys say the timeline isn’t unusual.

A North Carolina law increased the punishment for impaired boaters a few years ago. The law, known as Sheyenne's Law, made boating DWI cases that ended in the victim dying a felony.

Kenneth Marshall, whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver on a boat on July 4, 2015 at Lake Norman, said his daughter's death inspired the law change, which was previously a misdemeanor.

However, attorney John McCabe said offenses on the road don't impact the offender's ability to operate a vessel on the water.

Family of 10-year-old killed in tragic boat crash: She 'filled our lives with joy and laughter'

"What’s interesting is what happens in a car doesn’t affect what happens in a boat, and what happens in a boat doesn’t affect what happens in a car," McCabe said. "You can get a DWI, be charged with a DWI, have your license revoked, you can still drive a boat."

Marshall said the change of the law was a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.

"You know, if you do have a DUI, you don’t get your boating license, if you got a DWI you don’t get your driving license," Marshall said. "Just make it stricter in general."

"Operating a boat under any impairing substance, whether that’s drugs or alcohol, it’s extremely dangerous," said Sgt. Claude Smith with NC Wildlife Resources Commission. "Every year throughout the summer we deal with a lot of different boat incidents that are alcohol- and drug- related. This is obviously an extreme example of that. It's a very tragic accident."

West Lake Elementary sent a letter to families over the weekend, informing them of the accident and providing resources for children to cope with the tragedy.

"This was a heartbreaking accident, but one that was preventable,” said Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson. "Alcohol was a factor, and the decision to operate a boat while impaired had devastating consequences. We urge everyone to think twice before mixing alcohol with watercraft operation. It only takes a moment for lives to be changed forever."

Carroll's family sent WRAL News the following statement through the family's attorney:

This past Saturday, our lives were shattered when our daughter, Brooklyn, died from injuries she sustained when she was hit by a boat while she was innocently swimming at Shearon Harris Lake. For the 10 years that she was alive, "B" filled our lives with joy and laughter.

We appreciated the support that we have received from our family, our friends and even strangers. As we continue to grieve together as a family, we request privacy.

WRAL reporter and anchor Eric Miller contributed to this story.