Janae Edmondson testifies at Daniel Riley trial

ST. LOUIS (First Alert 4) – Janae Edmondson took the stand on Thursday in Daniel Riley’s trial.

Janae was in downtown St. Louis for a volleyball tournament when she was hit by a car that Riley was allegedly driving in February 2023. She lost her legs as a result.

In her testimony, Janae recalled grabbing her dad and running as she saw the car approaching them. After being hit, Janae said she ed being in pain and tried standing up, but her parents told her to stay still.

“I heard my dad screaming, and he was tying something really tight around my legs,” she recalled.

Janae said she ed going into the ambulance and talking to those inside.

“I was talking to them and saying, ‘My mom said don’t close my eyes. I have to stay awake,’ and I was just sitting there, looking up, repeating that to myself,” she said.

When she first got to the hospital, Janae said she ed telling the doctor her mom told her to keep her eyes open. She said once her mom and dad were near her head in the hospital, she closed her eyes.

The next thing she ed was trying to sit up for the first time in the hospital with metal rods in her pelvis.

While she was in the hospital, she said she started getting depressed and “questioned why this happened to me.” She said she felt trapped and helpless.

Janae recalled her healing process.

“It was just awful. I had stabbing pain all throughout my legs. I was numb majority of the time that I was in the hospital and even coming out, even now, my legs are still numb in places, and I can’t feel anything,” she said. “It was stabbing pain down my back, in my hips, in my legs. I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.”

Before the crash, Janae had committed to the University of Tennessee Southern but she ended up attending a school to be closer to her home. She was planning to play volleyball in college and is now the manager of the volleyball team.

Janae has undergone 29 surgeries, 23 of which took place in St. Louis within two weeks after the crash. She still has more surgeries ahead of her.

Before Janae testified, her mother, Francine, took the stand. She was holding back tears almost from the start.

“I heard a really loud collision behind us, and it sounded like a bomb went off,” she recalled.

As the ambulance took her daughter away, Francine said she allowed herself to feel. She described it as her soul being ripped out of her.

“I knew if I cried she would die,” Francine said.

Riley has waived his right to testify.

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