CINCINNATI (Scripps News Cincinnati) — An Ohio woman accused of crashing her vehicle into two men in a Kroger parking lot and killing one is facing several charges.
Taahviya Chapman, 24, is charged with one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault, one count of attempted murder and one count of endangering children.
Taahviya Chapman, 24, has been indicted on several charges after she crashed her car into two men in the parking lot of the Spring Grove Village Kroger, killing one, on Aug. 31. (Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office via WCPO)
If convicted on all charges, Chapman could face life in prison.
On August 31, Chapman allegedly drove her car into the father of her child — her intended target — and also hit 58-year-old Christopher Scott Griffith, who died at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center from his injuries.
Chapman then got out of the car and began physically assaulting the man with whom she had an 8-month-old child; that child was inside the vehicle when Chapman hit the two men, according to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.
“While he was in Kroger she apparently went through his cell phone and believed that he had in an inappropriate relationship with her sister,” said Deters during a press conference.
The man Chapman intended to hit suffered a broken leg in the attack.
Surveillance footage at the Kroger captured the moment Chapman, in her dark-colored van, barrels toward the two men near the doors of the grocery store.
“What this woman did is sickening,” said Deters in the press release. “Her total disregard for human life is stunning. This woman didn’t care about the lives she put in danger — including her own 8-month-old child.”
Griffith was in the process of recovering from a motorcycle crash that left him paralyzed from the neck down when Chapman hit and killed him.
“He was paralyzed from the neck down after his motorcycle accident,” said Greg, Griffith’s brother, after his death. “He slowly, but surely recovered until he could walk. He needed a cane, but he could walk and function, live on his own.”
Greg said during his career Griffith was a sound engineer for Harry Connick Jr., Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Prince, The Temptations and the Four Tops. Greg said he and his family hope justice will prevail for his brother and the other man hit in the crash.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this,” he said. “I really want her to pay for what she’s done. I mean the maximum penalty, whatever the murder charge is going to be, that she pays for this. This is senseless.”
This story was originally published Sept. 8 by WCPO in Cincinnati, an E.W. Scripps Company.
