The Georgia Supreme Court could be the next venue to decide who can recover any damages from the death of a teenager in an accident with a police car — the boy’s parents or the daughter whom he didn’t live to see born.
The unusual legal battle has raged since October 2007, when Byron Trent Pyles, who went by Trent, died at age 16 after his automobile crash with a Locust Grove police officer. Trent had been driving to apply for a pizza parlor job when the officer’s police van veered into oncoming traffic, according to Atlanta lawyer Frederick D. Burkey, who represents Trent’s parents. The parents, Rebecca Lynne deVente and Byron Keith Pyles of Henry County, are pursuing a wrongful death action in Henry County against the officer and the city police department.
