By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
Jan. 19, 2011

Twelve years of life silently flashed across the screen.

Sound for the PowerPoint presentation malfunctioned and its silence mimicked the now silenced Damian Slayton.

There were the normal pictures of Slayton playing with toys, pounding the drums, posing with friends on the playground.

Then there were the lasts: His last birthday. The last picture his mother took of him. The last picture he took of himself. And finally, his gravestone with the heading “beloved son.”

Slayton’s mother, Sabrina “Bri” Kneisley, showed the PowerPoint during the Jan. 14 sentencing hearing of Clayton Dunlap, 31, at the Jackson County Circuit Court.

Ten months ago, Dunlap’s reckless driving caused a five-vehicle accident at Gregory Boulevard and U.S. 71, resulting in multiple injuries and the fatality of 12-year-old Slayton.

Slayton’s mother suffered broken ribs, multiple contusions and a severe brain injury.

Dunlap was charged with murder in the second degree for vehicular homicide, three counts of operating a motor vehicle on a highway while license is revoked, three counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated resulting in injury and resisting arrest by fleeing, all felonies.

During a previous hearing, Dunlap pleaded guilty to those charges.

On Jan. 14, Jackson County Judge Kathleen Forsyth sentenced Dunlap to 34 years in prison.

During the hearing, Forsyth listened to testimony from friends and family of Slayton and Dunlap, and also Detective Tommy Woods with the Kansas City Police Department of Traffic and Investigation Division, who investigated the March 27 accident.

Woods calculated Dunlap’s minimum rate of speed at 62.8 to 65.9 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone. Dunlap’s toxicology report revealed he was high on phencyclidine (PCP) and marijuana, Woods said.

A deep loss

Both sides of the courtroom mourned.

Those who knew Slayton lost a best friend, a son, a vivacious young boy. Dunlap’s children were losing a father and in the words of Dunlap’s niece Brittany Jones, “Not only have you lost someone, we’ve lost someone to the system.”

For Slayton’s father, Matthew Slayton, he would never teach his son how to shave or how to drive or watch him graduate from college, he said.

“He (Dunlap) took the only son with my last name,” he said. “My Slayton family name will end when my daughter gets married.”

“No sentence will ever be enough,” Slayton’s stepmother Terri Slayton said. “The mere fact that someone can take the life of a child and have the possibility of parole is inexcusable to me.”

Damian would never have his first kiss, fall in love or receive a bachelor’s and master’s degree, she continued.

“Those things were taken away from Damian,” she said. “Clayton not only stole Damian’s life, he stole precious memories from everyone around Damian… There’s no end to the damage something like this can cause… It wasn’t the drugs, the alcohol… that killed Damian. It was a man called Clayton Dunlap. He became a weapon and this time, he murdered an innocent child named Damian Slayton.”

For the Kneisley family, the anguish multiplied.

“Her (Bri) short-term memory initially was only a few minutes long. She would forget everything she did and everything she was told every few minutes,” Kneisley’s mother, Jan Kneisley said.

That meant Bri’s family had to tell her up to 30 times a day that her son was dead. It wasn’t until Damian’s visitation that it finally stuck that her only child was no longer alive.

Bri said her memory continues to be a “jumbled mess.”

She doesn’t remember the two weeks she stayed in the hospital. She’s forgotten the sound of her son’s voice and laugh.

“I can’t describe the funeral. I only remember seeing my baby dead,” Bri said. “I remember wanting to climb into the casket with him just to hold him, just to let him know that Mommy was with him…

“Ten months after the wreck there’s still things I can’t remember.”

She earned a master’s degree in literature, but doesn’t remember the novels sitting on her book shelf and was unable to return to her high school teaching job.

“I would happily amplify my brain injury if it could bring Damian back,” she said. “Damian was such a wonderful child. He was generous and thoughtful…

“Damian was my reason for being. How does one carry on without a reason for being? How does one cease being a mother?”

She described Damian as an honor student and a boy with an infectious smile. At his young age, he embodied more empathy and compassion than adults, she said.

“Damian’s murder hurt more than just our family and friends, it hurt the community, it hurt the world.”

Dunlap’s family painted a picture of a man who struggled with drugs, but one who exuded a kind and giving heart.

Jones described him as a loving and proud uncle and father.

All those testifying for Dunlap extended their sympathy but also urged the family of Damian to forgive.

Dunlap also extended his sympathy to Damian’s family.

“I often try to imagine how devastating it must be to lose a child as I, too, am also a parent,” Dunlap said. “There is nothing in life that prepares a parent to understand the worst has happened.”

He voiced remorse and regret for the accident and prayed that Damian’s family would find peace.

“I can only imagine what little value and comfort these words bring to you. Nevertheless, I am bound by my conscience to offer my apology and condolences,” he said.

Before sentencing Dunlap, Forsyth said she appreciated his apology, but said remorse is not enough.

“You have managed to escape serious punishment and prison time despite being found guilty on over 45 separate offenses,” she said. “Your actions of the past 16 years stand as evidence that you have no intention of abiding by society’s laws and you have no regard whatsoever for others’ safety.”

Forsyth then cited how three weeks before the accident Dunlap carelessly fled from police.

“Given the description of the high speed chase at that time, it is a miracle that no one died in your hands that day,” she said.

His sentencing, she continued, was not solely for punishment, but to protect the community and to stand as a deterrent to both Dunlap and others.

Dunlap must serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole.