She hit her husband with a truck, dragged him 500 yards. Her toddler was inside, SC prosecutor says

Two children will grow up without having either of their parents.

That’s how a South Carolina prosecutor recently summed up a sad scene after leaving court. The kids’ mother was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars after she pleaded guilty to killing her husband and their father.

One of the children was 4 years old when the incident occurred in January, the other had not been born, when their mother hit their father with a pickup truck and dragged his body under the vehicle more than 500 yards before stopping, according to 10th Circuit Solicitor David Wagner.

Taylor Louise Bright was pregnant with her second child with husband John Taylor Bright, when the deadly incident occurred in Seneca, the solicitor’s office reported.

According to the solicitor, the incident occurred Jan. 18, after a disagreement between the now 23-year-old Bright and her 25-year-old husband.

Bright, who admitted drinking four beers and smoking marijuana, left the home with her 4-year-old daughter and hit her husband with a 2005 Dodge Ram pickup truck around 9 p.m., according to an incident report, per WYFF-4.

Toxicology reports showed that the pregnant Bright was “legally intoxicated,” at the time of the incident, Wagner’s office reported.

After she hit her husband with the truck, he was dragged “through the streets of Seneca,” the solicitor’s office said.

According to the incident report, “Taylor told authorities the truck was not operating correctly so she stopped and that is when she discovered John had been under the truck,” WYFF-4 reported.

He died at the scene, “as a result of chest and abdominal trauma,” the solicitor’s office reported.

After pleading guilty, Bright was sentenced to 10 years in prison for reckless homicide, and she also received a consecutive 10-year sentence that was suspended to two years for unlawful neglect of a child, Wagner’s office reported. Bright was also sentenced to five years probation on that same count.

“This case is a senseless tragedy that has forever impacted the lives of two families,” Wagner said in a news release. “Taylor Bright’s toxic combination of anger, alcohol and motor vehicles has left two children to grow up without either parent.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2018 at 10:07 PM with the headline "She hit her husband with a truck, dragged him 500 yards. Her toddler was inside, SC prosecutor says."