Harris Lake boat driver charged with murder

Boat crash killed 10-year-old girl

The driver of a boat involved in a deadly crash on North Carolina’s Shearon Harris Lake has been charged with second degree murder, among other charges. His girlfriend, the owner of the boat, has also been charged with felony death by impaired boating, serious injury via impaired boating, and aiding and abetting boating while impaired.

Quinten Kight, 40-years-old of Vass, NC, was driving the boat on Aug. 2, 2025 when he plowed into a group of swimmers. The crash killed 10-year-old Brooklyn Carroll. Another victim, 41-year-old Jennifer Stehle, was injured badly, and had to have one of her legs amputated and is facing a lengthy recovery.

Annemarie Flanigan, 56, is Kight’s girlfriend and the owner of the boat he was driving.

After the crash, Kight was charged with DWI and taken to jail on a $500,000 bond. A few days later, Flanigan was also arrested and charged.

The victims were swimming in the lake behind the Stehle family’s Starcraft deck boat, which was anchored. Kight was pulling two people on wake boards while driving Flanigan’s Tige surf boat. When one of the wake boarders fell, Kight looked behind the surf boat, then struck Carroll and Stehle who were in front of him.

According to Capt. Nathan Green with NCWRC, the two victims were injured by the wake boat’s propeller, and officials found a purple/teal youth PFD wrapped around the propeller.

The crash happened around 4:30 p.m. An NCWRC officer arrived around 5 p.m., where he observed Kight sitting on a nearby dock eating a sandwich, according to the warrant. The officer noted Kight’s eyes were red and glassy. The officer also detected a strong smell of alcohol.

While being questioned, Kight said he’d had “at least two hard seltzers” before the crash. Officials found a total of 39 empty hard seltzer cans on the boat, which had “at least 10” other occupants.

According to court documents, Kight was already out of jail on bond when he crashed into Carroll and Stehle. This was from charges related to a hit-and-run that injured Alex Myers of Vass in 2023.