Kerri Bedrick of Centerport charged with murder in wrong-way crash that killed her 9-year-old son

The Centerport mother accused of killing her 9-year-old son in a wrong-way crash on the Southern State Parkway last month was indicted Wednesday by a grand jury on 21 counts of depraved indifference murder.

Kerri Bedrick, 32, has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which also accuses her of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated drunken driving with a minor in the Aug. 22 crash, according to court records. Prosecutors said Bedrick’s blood tested positive for methamphetamine, which her defense attorney and family said she had been prescribed.

“This defendant traveled for miles in the wrong direction while under the influence of methamphetamine and with her son in the backseat,” Suffolk District Assistant Attorney James McCormack told acting State Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz during the arraignment in Riverhead. “This horrific accident resulted in (Bedrick’s) son suffering a fatal blunt force injury.”

Horowitz ordered Bedrick sent to the Suffolk County Jail, citing her actions in evading police the night of the crash and a prior arrest for fleeing police during a DWI in 2012 that led to a conviction.

Bedrick’s license has been suspended 56 times, prosecutors said, including the morning of the 2 a.m. crash.

Defense attorney Scott Zerner of Manhattan said his client is distraught over the loss of his son, Eli Henrys.

“How do you measure the level of devastation that a person can suffer?” Zerner asked in response to a question about his client’s pain. “What is the maximum level of devastation that a person can suffer?”

Henrys was in the backseat of his mother’s 2022 Mitsubishi SUV after she allegedly sped westbound in the eastbound lanes of the highway near Carleton Avenue in Islip, causing a multi-vehicle collision, according to authorities.

A Suffolk deputy sheriff assigned to drunk driving enforcement spotted her heading west in the eastbound lanes shortly after 2 a.m. and gave chase, authorities said. At one point, prosecutors said, the officer was also driving the wrong way on Southern State, trying to get her to move onto the shoulder when he had to stop because of oncoming traffic.

McCormack said Bedrick eventually passed eight cars while driving at speeds of up to 100 mph in the opposite direction. Eventually, a pickup truck swerved out of Bedrick’s path, before his vehicle was struck by a Honda Civic that had had its “passenger side doors cut off,” McCormack said.

The accident ended in a head-on collision with a Mercedes SUV in the eastbound center lane of the highway.

Two other drivers were injured, police and prosecutors said.

Bedrick, who police said called officers for help when they arrived at the crash scene, told investigators he had taken methamphetamine at 8 p.m. the day before the crash, McCormack said. First responders tried to revive Henrys, who was pronounced dead a short time later at South Shore University Hospital, authorities said.

McCormack said the patient’s name was stolen from a medication bottle containing pills that tested positive for methamphetamine.

Asked where he was going, Bedrick said, “I honestly don’t know,” McCormack said. Zerner declined to answer that question outside the courtroom.

Zerner said his client, who appeared in court in a wheelchair, suffers from a number of medical problems, including spina bifida, narcolepsy and cataplexy. He declined to say for what ailment she was allegedly prescribed methamphetamines. She had no alcohol in her system, he said.

In asking the judge to set cash bail, Zerner called the crash “a horrible accident.”

“That’s what it was, an accident, a car accident,” Zerner told Horowitz.

Bedrick’s mother, Diane Bedrick, maintained her daughter’s claim that she only took prescription drugs.

“It was prescription medication and she’s devastated like the rest of us,” Diane Bedrick said.

She described her grandson as an “innocent and sweet boy.”

Bedrick also faces felony charges of assault and unlawful flight from an officer, along with more than half a dozen misdemeanor charges.

In addition to the charge stemming from last month’s crash, Bedrick has eight open cases from the fall through March for driving without a license or car insurance in an unregistered vehicle — the same car involved in the crash, records obtained by Newsday show.