“Cohen had a little cousin who was born a month prior to Cohen’s death. He loved to sit next to him and touch his little feet and hands or give him sugar. We just knew he was practicing for when his little brother would arrive. Little did we know he would never get to meet him.”
Those words came from a victim impact statement, written by Stacey Siniyard and read in Fannin County Superior Court last Thursday at the request of the family by Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney B. Allison Sosebee.
Siniyard is Cohen’s great aunt.
Her words came during a hearing for Hunter Ethan Elliott who, in a negotiated plea, admitted to several charges including homicide by vehicle in the rst degree in connection with the March 15, 2020, crash that claimed the life of two-year- old Cohen Bryson.
Elliott also pleaded guilty to two counts of serious injury by vehicle, DUI, and improper suspension.
The serious injury by vehicle charges were in conjunction with injuries to Josh Bryson and Santana Kelly.
Kelly was 26 weeks pregnant with Cohen’s brother at the time of the crash, Sosebee said.
The crash forced her into premature labor with Cohen’s brother, Chandler, who was born weighing one pound, seven ounces.
He spent 138 days in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but has made a lot of progress, according to Siniyard’s statement.
Sosebee said the DUI was Elliott’s third in ten years.
Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver sentenced Elliott to a total of 40 years, with 20 to be served.
She also refused a request by Elliott to be released from jail until being transferred into the state prison system.
According to reports at the time of the crash, Elliott, then 23, of 730 Tilley Road, Talking Rock, Georgia, was taken into custody at the scene at the intersection of Highway 515 and Blue Ridge Drive (Georgia highways 2 and 5). He has remained in the Fannin County Detention Center since then.
The Georgia State Patrol (GSP) report identified Cohen as a rear seat passenger in a 2008 Ford Escape driven by Joshua Bryson of Rome, Georgia.
The Escape was headed west, sitting at the traffic light.
Elliott was driving a 2016 Ford Super Duty truck, approaching Cohen’s vehicle from the rear.
The GSP report said, “due to suspect alcohol impairment and distracted driving” by Elliott, the truck struck the Escape in the rear.
The report said Cohen was transported from the scene to Fannin Regional Hospital where he died from his injuries.
Josh Bryson was transported to Fannin Regional and Kelly was airlifted to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, two days after the crash, GSP Trooper Shane Matheson swore out warrants charging Elliott with 14 separate offenses.
The next day, Fannin County Chief Magistrate Judge Brian Jones denied bond for Elliott.
A subsequent bond hearing was held in Superior Court in front of Judge Weaver April 24.
She also denied bond, determining Elliott a significant risk to flee, a significant threat and danger to the community, a significant risk of committing felony offenses and a significant risk to intimidate witnesses.
The November 2020 Term of the Fannin County Grand Jury then returned a 32-count true bill of indictment against Elliott.
The charges he pleaded guilty to last week came from that indictment. Other charges were nolle prossed under the terms of the negotiated plea.