Could those who knew exactly how Layla Aiken died be charged for not reporting it?

Will his father be arrested? Will his girlfriend be charged? Those are questions many viewers have asked us after WINK News got an exclusive unredacted arrest report for Logan Hetherington on Friday.

Hetherington, 19, is accused of hitting and killing Layla Aiken, 8, in Cape Coral and is expected back in court next month. Only WINK News learned he told his father and girlfriend what happened and records show his father helped him stay away from police.

“It’s the road where I take the back way” and “I’m going to jail,” are two of the chilling text messages investigators said Hetherington sent his girlfriend after the hit-and-run death of Cape Coral second grader Aiken.

On Friday, only WINK News told you Hetherington and his dad conspired to avoid the police the morning of the crash and run away from the job where police seized the suspect’s red pickup truck.

Now, one of the biggest questions you are asking on the WINK News Facebook page: will the teenager’s dad and girlfriend face any charges?

Nicole Waid, a former prosecutor, said: “I’m not saying he [dad] didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m saying that the law actually exempts him from being charged for doing anything wrong.”

Waid said Florida statute prevents the suspect’s dad from being charged as an accessory because they are related.

“There’s a carve-out so the dad although he took actions, which normally would define an accessory-after-the-fact,” Waid said, “it appears from Florida statute that he’s exempt from actually being charged with accessory after the fact.”

Regarding the girlfriend, who police said she knew the deadly hit-and-run moments after it happened, Waid told us her decision was ethically suspect.

“You don’t have a duty to actually report a crime again unless we’re talking about child abuse,” Waid said. “You know you hear and you’re obviously like, ‘well, of course, there’s a duty to report.’ And ethically there may be. Legally there is not.”

MORE: 

• 19-year-old arrested in hit-and-run death of 8-year-old Layla Aiken
• Driver accused in hit-and-run death of Layla Aiken posts bail

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