THE driver suspected of killing Netflix star Sara Burack in a hit-and-run appeared in court for the first time after a manhunt ended in her arrest.
Amanda Kempton from Virginia was arrested and charged in the early hours on Friday after cops launched a manhunt for the driver who hit the Million Dollar Beach House star and left her for dead.
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The 40-year-old was found unresponsive on a road in the Hamptons by police officers just before 3 am on Thursday.
Kempton, 32, has been charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident in which there was a fatality.
The Class D felony could get her up to seven years behind bars, according to The New York Post.
The Marine biologist made her first court appearance on Saturday morning and pleaded not guilty.
Speaking on her behalf, Kempton’s lawyer told the court that her client thought she had hit a traffic cone.
According to a member of Sara’s family, the incident took place on Montauk Highway near Villa Paul Restaurant around 2:30 am, per TMZ.
The reality show estate agent reportedly suffered severe head wounds and several broken bones.
According to TMZ, she went into cardiac arrest at the scene, was revived by paramedics, but later put on life support at the hospital.
This was later withdrawn after no signs of brain activity.
Officials at the Southampton Town Justice Court put Kempton on a $100,000 bail and she has since been released from custody to stay with her family in Manorville.
The high bail rate was put in place after Prosecutor MacDonald Drane said she was a flight risk after she allegedly fled the scene of the crime.
Kempton could be seen holding back tears in court as she was due to return to Virginia for a wedding on Saturday.
She wore an orange sweatshirt and black pants as her family sat in silence in the courtroom
Prosecutors claimed she had been at a tavern before the incident, but her lawyer William Keahon noted that alcohol is not being considered as a factor in the case.
He said that weather conditions were foggy, impacting visibility, meaning she did not see Sara who was walking along the right-hand lane of the road with a pink suitcase.
Believing she had clipped a traffic cone and not a person, Sara continued driving to a friends house, he said.
It was then that she saw the large pink suitcase stuck under her car.
Cops tracked Kempton down by tracking her license plate.
Prosecutors told the court that when they discovered her vehicle it had damage at the front.
FINAL MOMENTS
Sara’s close friend Paulette Orlando-Corsair previously spoke to The U.S. Sun about the estate agent’s tragic last moments.
“She was on life support and after she was taken off she still lived for another half an hour,” her friend continued.
“The doctors said, ‘We don’t know if she can hear you but you can talk to her.’
“We kept on saying, ‘Sara, we’re here for you, you’re not alone.’ I wanted her to know she wasn’t alone.
“Her brain was so damaged, she had multiple fractures, so much swelling, brain bleeding, her liver was damaged, her leg was broken in two places.”
She shared a heartbreaking tribute to the real estate agent on Facebook, remembering her as “kind, generous, funny and full of life and drama… we love her the way she was, all of it.”
Burack starred in the Netflix show that aired in 2020.
She is survived by her parents, her sister, and brother-in-law.
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