WAVY.com

Man convicted again after crash that killed Norfolk 7-year-old

Jailynn Santiful (Courtesy of her family)

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Norfolk man has been convicted again in connection to a crash that killed a 7-year-old girl in 2022.

44-year-old Larry Laquan Thompson originally was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in jail this past summer after pleading no contest to operating a vehicle with revoked driving privilege.


However he appealed, and pleaded no contest again on Tuesday in Norfolk Circuit Court. Judge Mary Jane Hall accepted his plea and convicted him, and set his new sentencing for March 15. He could receive a maximum of 12 months in jail.

“Had Mr. Thompson had a license, these facts would have been tragic,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi in a release on Tuesday. “But Mr. Thompson did not have a license, and he never should have been driving that day. Mr. Thompson’s choice to drive on a revoked license transformed the tragedy into a crime, and Jailynn paid for Mr. Thompson’s choice with her life.”

The crash on September 3, 2022 at Pickett Road and Old Court Drive took the life of 7-year-old Jailynn Santiful, who was a rising second grader in the gifted program at Chesterfield Academy.

Her family called her “fearless” and an “amazing child.”