Hit and run death plea

SHARON HILL, Pa. – June 22, 2009 "We didn't realize until she wasn't here anymore how much she was to this family. She reminded us to talk to each other. She reminded us to love each other."

Kim Ferrell named her daughter Faith because she always wanted a daughter and prayed to God to have one. But ever since her little girl's death her faith has been tested.

"Still not right with God on how he did. It didn't have to be so cruel but it'll come."

It was August of last year. Faith Sinclair, an honors student at Ridley High, was walking across Chester Pike to a friend's house with her boyfriend when investigators say Lemuel Payne drove his black Mercedes at high rate of speed and cut down the 16-year-old killing her instantly.

"If it wasn't for my family and my friends I wouldn't have made it. I was supposed to go first"

Kim and her family braced themselves for a painful trial that was set to begin Tuesday.

But late Monday, Lemuel Payne pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident and tampering with evidence. After the court proceeding, Ferrell and her family went straight to the cemetery.

"We kissed her headstone; we knelt down with her and said its ok sweetie. It's ok it's over."

Payne will be sentenced July 20th. Ferrell says she prays god puts someone in Payne's path to show him a better way of life. Until then, she tries to forgive.

If I don't forgive him I'm no better than him and he doesn't deserve to rent that much space in my head," she said. "The reality of it is two weeks, two days, twenty years, the rest of his life it's never going to bring her back."

Payne faces up to 9 years behind bars.

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