Judge dismisses deadly hit-and-run case in fast-food parking lot, suspect found incompetent
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - An El Paso County Judge dismissed the case of Joel Lang, 41, the man charged in a fatal hit-and-run that killed Kristy Kerst, declaring him incompetent to stand trial.
During court today, KRDO13 Investigates learned that two doctors had evaluated Lang due to a brain injury he had suffered as a child. Both doctors said it was unlikely that Lang could ever be restored to competence.
Last year, Monument Police responded to an accident in the parking lot of McDonald’s located at 765 W. Baptist Road on Nov. 4. The Office of the District Attorney has now confirmed that Kerst was killed in the parking lot after exiting her car to inspect it for damage after Lang’s van had bumped into it. While driving away, Lang hit Kerst. She was trapped and dragged hundreds of feet.
Lang later turned himself in on Nov. 6, confessing to El Paso County deputies that he had hit Kerst. His arrest affidavit said Lang told deputies that he knew that he drove over Kerst's body, and knew it was dragging underneath his car for at least 300 feet.
KRDO13 Investigates spoke with the family of Kerst, who told us the ruling came as a shock.
Kerst's daughter, Britany Visage, told us, "It's heart-wrenching. Personally, my sense of safety has been shattered."
"To know that we'll never hear the words he's guilty. In a society where we're constantly told someone is proven innocent or someone is innocent until proven guilty, it's very hard," Visage said.
"Hearing that you can just kill somebody and have a technicality reasoning to defend it, it just doesn't seem right," Hanna Kerst said.
In a statement, the district attorney office of Michael J. Allen expressed sympathy for the family and displeasure with the ruling saying "That family will live with the unseen scars of that day, and they will know the government chose to protect their loved one’s killer over their safety and well-being –and that of our community as a whole."
Allen went on to say in the statement that “The competency statutes that created the result in Lang’s case have been amended 11 times since 2019. That is excessive meddling by a legislature intent on weakening our public safety statutes. It means this defendant, and any others who fall into the same category, will walk free with no accountability. Free to hurt, maim, or kill again."
Lang will remain in custody pending a review setting on Aug. 1 to allow for the arrangement of mental health services that will assist with Lang’s transition.
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