Perris driver gets 5 years in prison for death of man in wheelchair in Highland

Last Updated on February 27, 2020 by CCAR Staff

A Perris woman who fatally hit a man in a wheelchair in Highland about a year ago has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Desiree Shante Every, 37, was sentenced to five years in prison on Jan. 31 for vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and filing a false insurance claim, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said.

Every hit 30-year-old Mark Allen Kaiser with her car while he was crossing Baseline Street in a crosswalk at around 2:25 a.m. in Highland. The crash happened on Feb. 24, 2019.

Kaiser was in a coma until his death on April 15, 2019, according to a friend, Shannon Gibbs. Family members decided to take him off life support, she said. Kaiser had a prosthetic left leg after losing the leg to cancer.

Every eventually went to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and told the department she was a driving on Baseline Street the night Kaiser was killed, officials said said. She told deputies that she was using her phone while driving and she wasn’t wearing prescription glasses while driving.

“The deputies obtained Every’s cell phone records,” the District Attorney’s Office said. “They found several text messages had been sent at the time of the accident.”

Officials said the San Bernardino County District Attorney found that Every also made a claim with her insurance company to get the damage on her vehicle fixed, allegedly reporting that she had crashed into a donkey.

Every pleaded guilty on Nov. 26, 2019 to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and filing a false insurance claim, according to San Bernardino Superior Court records. As part of the plea, a charge of hit-and-run resulting in permanent injury or death was dropped.