As Knox’s mother, I want to use this opportunity to let you know a bit about him.  Knox Davison Whiten was born on February 15, 2000 and he passed away on March 21, 2021.  He was the glue to our entire family. He was always our planner and our GPS wherever we went. In fact we called him grandpa because he was always the adult even when he was young. He was such a little germ freak and his room and everything about him was always neat as a pin.

Knox went to Oconee Christian Academy from 2nd grade through graduation. His goal for college was to attend UGA. He was accepted to many universities but, unfortunately, he was not accepted to UGA straight out of high school, so he went to Florida State University for his first two years and had just transferred to UGA his junior year. Knox was a great student and was planning to attend law school after graduating from UGA.

Knox was a fabulous golfer and set many school records at his school and won the top medalist his senior year at the state championship. He loved the sport and always chose to work at golf courses while in school. He worked at The Waterfall Club in Clayton, GA during the summers and holidays and was working at the Athens Country Club while he was at UGA.

We used his love of golf to be the focus of our foundation in Knox’s memory. The Knox Whiten Foundation is raising money to build a golf facility at Athens Y Camp in Tallulah Falls, Ga. Knox grew up at the camp attending but mostly spending time there with his best buddy Spencer Schaefer. Spencer’s dad Edward, is the director at the camp so Knox and Spencer spent a lot of time there. We are building the facility for the campers to enjoy and also to offer private lessons for young adults to further their love of the sport.

As far as the night of the accident, Knox had gone out to watch some March Madness with some guys from work. Knox took an Uber to the restaurant but when leaving he looked up the charge to take an Uber home and chose not to pay the $12 and decided to walk home. That was a decision that changed our lives. As a mother, I cannot express enough to tell your kids to pay for the Uber or use public transportation if available. A Rideshare within limits of the University could have made the difference for Knox that night if he knew it was available. Things can change in an instance so have these conversations with your children.

I have attached my Impact Letter that I read in court the day of sentencing. We pray that telling our story will help others in the future.

“Knox was truly one of a kind!  I’m not just saying that because I am his mother, but he honestly was an old soul in a young body.  He experienced more in his short 21 years than most people do in their lifetime. It was almost like he knew his life would be cut short, so he made the best of it.  He took a cross country trip by himself the previous year and was planning his next.  He jokingly said that he wanted to do this last trip by himself because he knew his girlfriend Emma would be going everywhere with him for the rest of his life. That brings us to another part of our lives that will always have a huge hole…watching Knox get married and have a family. Knox was a perfectionist and I know my little grandchildren would have been the most well-dressed little neat freaks just like his dad.

But the one that was probably affected the most by all of this is Knox’s brother Charlie.  There was a 4 year difference in age between them and they could not have been more polar opposite. Knox often treated Charlie like he was his father and as you can imagine that wasn’t always well received but I truly think Charlie listened to every word Knox said without ever admitting it. Charlie was 17 when Knox was killed…they were finally coming to a place where I could hear them joking around together and choosing to go to concerts and sporting events together. They were becoming best friends!  My heart is broken that Charlie not only lost his bother but his best friend and mentor.

Now to how this has affected me…there are no words. I could go on and on about how my life, the way I knew it, changed forever that night. I am a shell of a human walking around trying to be okay. Our lives will go on and we will come together as a family, but holidays, events and milestones will never be the same.

This leads me to the person that killed my son. She hit my child and left him there to die on the side of the road. After hearing that Knox was still alive when the first officer arrived, I will live forever wondering what a difference a matter of minutes could have made.  She had the opportunity to stop and render aide or call for help and she chose not to do so. That heartless crime is unfathomable and can only be done by someone that was trying to protect themselves from something. She showed no respect for the law by continuing to drive that night while having a suspended license and I pray that the prison time given to her helps her understand that she is not above the law, and it took a vibrant young man to be killed to finally make her understand that. Can you imagine how hard it is for a mother to know your child has been sent to a crime lab? Knox could not even be the organ donor he wanted to be because of that.

So as for the family of Knox Davison Whiten, we believe the maximum punishment she could have gotten would never have been enough and having to go back and forth to settle on a plea agreement felt more like we were buying a car instead of deciding the fate of the person that killed our Knox. In our opinion there shouldn’t even be a question whether a person should get less than the maximum time for the horrific crimes she did.”