Picture of Lilly Belfield (courtesy of St. Louis Magazine)

Lilly Belfield, the 22-year-old driver charged with killing 26-year-old PhD candidate Kennedy Reed, was denied bond by Judge Brooke Hurst in a hearing last Friday, Sept. 18. 

After the fatal crash on Aug. 4 that killed Reed, a fourth-year candidate at the WashU School of Medicine, Belfield was arrested Sept. 17, a day after she was charged. 

Hurst, a former WashU Law adjunct professor, ruled that Belfield will remain in court custody in jail until future court dates and standing trial, the details of which have not yet been released. Belfield is not able to pay bail to be released from court custody either. 

Belfield was specifically charged with Reed’s killing, involuntary manslaughter, three counts of second-degree assault due to three passengers in Belfield’s vehicle sustaining injuries in the crash, and DWI.

Belfield told St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers that she had been driving the car at the time of the accident while intoxicatedly heading to a concert with friends, according to a SLMPD statement. 

Student Life reached out to Belfield’s attorney, David Rosener, for comment.

“I have been around way too long to believe the police about such matters,” Rosener wrote in an email to Student Life. “It was her car, and she had been driving it earlier in the day. She was not the driver at the time of the collision. Please consider who was injured in this frontal collision and their injuries. [Belfield] was in the back seat at the time of the collision.”

Student Life was unable to confirm whether Belfield herself was injured in the crash.