Driver sentenced in teen girl’s hit-and-run death

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Updated: March 1, 2012 8:35AM

LAFAYETTE — A Lafayette man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for driving drunk when he ran over and killed a 15-year-old girl who was walking on the shoulder of a road.

Forty-three-year-old Robert Kirts II was sentenced Friday in Tippecanoe Superior Court. He was convicted in November of drunken driving causing death and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

The Journal & Courier reported Kirts was arrested a day after Ebony Knight was hit the night of Feb. 27 while walking with a cousin back home after buying school supplies. Authorities weren’t able to test Kirts’ blood-alcohol level, but employees at two bars and his wife testified that he had been drinking that night.

Kirts said he was distracted by the radio or cell phone when he hit the girl.

AP