Left to right: Kentia M. Fearn (Oakland County Jail) and Mia Kanu (WJBK).
A 24-year-old woman in Michigan who drove away after a friend fell out of her moving car and died in the middle of the road will be going to jail. An Oakland County judge ordered Kentia M. Fearn to spend ninety days in jail for her role in the death of Mia Kanu, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Fearn pleaded no contest in October to one count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death as well as one count of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. In addition to her incarceration, Fearn was also sentenced to three years of probation.
The deadly incident took place shortly after Fearn and Kanu left a party in the early morning hours of June 3, 2023, in a car that Fearn was driving.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Southfield Police Department at about 4:32 a.m. on June 3 responded to a strip of road in front of the Coach House Apartments on Providence Drive, about 15 miles northwest of Detroit, in regards to a report about an adult female lying motionless in the street, the Detroit Free Press reported. The female — later identified as Kanu — was transported to Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, where medical personnel said she had suffered severe head trauma and admitted her into the intensive care unit and placed her on life support.
The person who called 911 was a passerby who did not know Kanu.
Kanu remained in the hospital for two days before she was declared dead on June 5, but remained on life support for an additional three days because she was an organ donor. According to the Free Press, staffers at Ascension Providence honored Kanu with a “walk of life” ceremony as she was brought to the operating room.
“There was no brain activity. Her liver went to a baby, her kidneys went to a recipient and her tissues and muscles were donated to the Gift of Life,” her mother, Bianca Vanmeter, told the newspaper. “She just looked like a beautiful angel laying in bed.”
Vanmeter reportedly said she saw her daughter before she went to work at the Green Lantern restaurant in Berkley on the morning of June 2. When Kanu finished her shift at the restaurant, her mother said she was picked up by a female friend who was staying at her house, along with her daughter, and the two went with friends to a house party.
Prosecutors in Oakland County said that after leaving the party, Kanu fell out of Fearn’s vehicle onto the road. Fearn allegedly did not stop. Instead, she left the area and did not alert anyone or call 911, authorities said.
“The law requires anyone involved in an accident to stop and immediately report the accident to authorities,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “Leaving the scene when someone is seriously injured or dies is a felony. My office will hold those who do so accountable.”
Fearn was arrested and charged in Kanu’s death about three months after the incident.
Kanu’s obituary said she was “a treasure to all those who loved her.”
“Mia, was a wonderful daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and friend who touched the lives of all those around her,” the tribute stated. “Mia dedicated her life to God, her family and friends. To all those that she encountered, Mia was kind, loving, sweet and funny. She was a team leader in all that she did and was a very active team player in volleyball and school activities.”
