Girl, 17, shot dead by strangers while driving to home of groomer who was sexually abusing her

A 17 year-old girl was shot dead by a group of strangers while driving to the home of a groomer who has now been convicted of sexually abusing her. 

Kaylee Dutton died on a lonely stretch of road near Cedar City, Utah, when 12 bullets were fired into her car late in January of this year after she was mistaken for a stalker.

The teenager was hit at least once by a .223 caliber bullet and crashed her red pickup truck into a fence. She was dead on arrival at Cedar City Hospital.

Dutton had been driving near the home of Justin Driffill, 27, who was arrested and charged last October with unlawful sexual conduct against Dutton.

She was under the age of consent in Utah – 18 – at the time of her killing.  

Driffill pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct against Dutton, a third degree felony, at a court in Cedar City Wednesday. He will be sentenced later this year.

Dutton’s mother Kimberlee told ABC4 that the family had been close friends with Justin from when she was a toddler and that Kaylee worked with Justin after she graduated high school.

She believes that Kaylee might still be alive today if the relationship with Driffill had never started, adding that her daughter was in love with him.

Kimberlee said: ‘If it weren’t for that, I just, we all just truly believe that she wouldn’t have been in that neighborhood that night, and she would still be here.’ 

Michael Hess-Witucki and Ethan Galloway both pleaded guilty to killing Kaylee, saying they thought Kaylee had been stalking them. 

Kaylee’s family also told the outlet that they have no closure surrounding Driffill’s guilty plea. 

Kimberlee added: ‘A guilty plea doesn’t really undo the damage that he did to her. It doesn’t really bring back her life, but it does prove what we’ve been saying all along.

‘The truth is at the end of the day he hurt her, and he knew it.’

Charging documents in the case, seen by St George News, say that Kaylee had detailed to investigators the sexual contact between her and Driffill. 

Investigators in the case recovered message exchanges between the two over Snapchat, Driffill told officers he was aware of their age difference. 

Driffill is to be sentenced later this year after his guilty plea, while Hess-Witucki and Galloway are also awaiting sentencing for murdering Kaylee. 

Iron County Sheriff Ken Carpenter said the pair admitted their roles in Kaylee’s death and Galloway wrote a letter to her family explaining his actions.

‘Both suspects admitted that their actions had resulted in serious bodily injury and death of the victim,’ an arrest affidavit read.

‘Their justification for chasing the victim’s vehicle was they believed they had previously observed the victim’s vehicle in their neighborhood and presumed the occupants of the victim’s vehicle were [stalking] them.

‘At the conclusion of the interview, Ethan wrote a letter of apology to the parents of the victim, describing the reasoning why he chased the victim’s vehicle and shot the victim-driver.’

‘Both suspects admitted that their actions had resulted in serious bodily injury and death of the victim,’ an arrest affidavit read.

Galloway and Hess-Witucki saw Kaylee’s car at their home block and chased after it in a black 2018 Chevrolet Silverado, flashing the car’s high beam headlights.

Kaylee and her 18-year-old friend saw the pickup truck pursuing them and drove almost six miles north and then west out of town.

Hess-Witucki pulled alongside them just before the intersection of Midvalley Road and 4300 W and Galloway sprayed the car with bullets.

Kaylee’s friend survived with only a leg injury. The unidentified passenger called 911 at 10.32pm. Dispatch audio indicates that first responders arrived at the scene 20 minutes later.

A local SWAT team arrested Galloway and Hess-Witucki outside their home at about 5.45pm the following day.