Michael DeWitt pleads guilty to carjacking in Madeline Troutt’s death

A Louisville man has pleaded guilty in federal court to carjacking, a key factor in a high-profile 2021 crime spree that sparked the death of a teenager in Louisville and led to actions in Frankfurt.

If a judge accepts the plea deal, Michael DeWitt of Louisville will be sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison. over the incident that ended in the death of Madeline Troutt, a Butler High School student who DeWitt hit with a stolen truck more than three years ago.

DeWitt, now 31, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court David J. Hale to carjacking resulting in death. He will be sentenced in January without parole, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

The case made headlines in March 2021 and became a key case used by Republican state lawmakers earlier this year as they tried to pass Bill 5 Housea sweeping public safety bill that was eventually approved by the Legislature.

In his guilty plea, DeWitt admitted to committing a carjacking at gunpoint on March 1, 2021, after getting behind the wheel of a 2011 Ford F-350 in Simpsonville and driving it to Louisville. He is then accused of crossing into the southbound lanes of Dixie Highway around 6:45 p.m. and crashing head-on into a car driven by Troutt, a 17-year-old Butler cheerleader who planned to attend nursing school at Bellarmine University.

Troutt, who was alone in her car, died at the hospital after the crash. DeWitt ran away but was “detained momentarily by bystanders” until Louisville Metro Police officers arrived, the department said at the time, and he was treated for minor injuries. A toxicology report found amphetamines and benzodiazepines in his system, as well as two stolen handguns in the car he was driving.

DeWitt pleaded guilty to the federal charge on Tuesday. He was also charged at the state level with murder, driving under the influence, third-degree assault on an officer, leaving the scene of an accident and several other charges. That case is still pending in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

Trautt’s death had an impact on the community. AND well attended candles took place a few days later in Butler the school’s 2021 state champion softball team dedicated to his the season of her memory.

It also had an impact on the state Capitol. DeWitt was out on bail at the time of the crash. The Louisville Bail Project, the local chapter of a national organization that uses public donations to pay bail for those accused of crimes, posted his $5,000 bond on separate charges of carjacking and assaulting an officer a week before the fatal shooting. collision.

About a year after her death, the Trout family sued the Bail Project she allegedly failed to properly investigate DeWitt’s criminal history. The the lawsuit was dismissed a few months laterbut Republican lawmakers are already wary of bail bonds after one posted bail for man accused of shooting then-mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg in February 2022 transferred the case to Frankfurt.

Members of the Troutt family — parents Marcy Lynn and Jeremy Troutt and brother Peyton Troutt — were among those who testified earlier this year at the Capitol in favor of House Bill 5. Along with toughening penalties for violent crime and cracking down on homelessness, the bill limits bail to charities below $5,000 and prohibits them from posting bail for people accused of violent crimes.

Her mother described the day she died as “still a horrible nightmare that I can’t wake up from” and the accident as “a tragedy (that) could have been avoided”.

“(Madelynn) was happy, loving and kind, with a big heart,” she said. “She had a bright future.”

House Bill 5, which supporters have dubbed the “Safer Kentucky Act,” adopted during the spring session of the General Assembly and became law over the summer. The Louisville Bail Fund made the announcement last summer will no longer post bail for the defendants but will instead focus on advocacy and lobbying moving forward, following the lead of the national organization.

DeWitt will be sentenced on January 27, 2025, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office. He is also due back in Jefferson County Circuit Court this month to face state charges related to Troutt’s death. He faces up to life in prison for the carjacking, but if the plea deal is accepted, he will spend 29 years and four months in prison.

Contact Lucas Aulbach at [email protected].