PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A woman accused of causing a fatal crash while allegedly trying to out-run police will stand trial.

According to police, Kayla Hoffman, of New Kensington, sped away when police tried to pull her over when she ran a red light back in February.

She crashed into a car on Verona Road in Penn Hills and 25-year-old Kayla Johnson-Ukeyne was killed.

“The person that did this deserves every punishment she can get because what she did was willful, it was wrong, it was deliberate and she’s not going to get away with it” Johnson-Ukeyne’s cousin, Curtis Martin said. “She was so young, she was just beginning life and she was hopeful of laughter and happiness; it’s all gone, it’s been taken away.”

Hoffman will stand trial on a third-degree murder charge.

“She wasn’t thumbing her nose at anybody, and she just made a poor decision and the result was horrific,” said Casey White, the defense attorney.

A formal arraignment is scheduled to take place in May.

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