Victim’s Husband Describes Witnessing Alleged Hit-and-Run Death

A Flathead County jury on Oct. 28 heard more witness testimony as prosecutors built their case against 40-year-old Kenneth James Floyd, who is standing trial for fatally running over his ex-wife with his vehicle and fleeing the scene in Martin City on Father’s Day in 2023.

Floyd has pleaded not guilty to a felony count of negligent homicide for the June 2023 death of 37-year-old Kimberly Gilham. He has also pleaded not guilty to a second felony count of leaving the scene of a vehicle accident involving serious bodily injury or death to another person and a third felony count of tampering with physical evidence.

Flathead County District Court Judge Dan Wilson is presiding over the trial, which began Oct. 27 with jury selection, opening statements and witness testimony.

On the second day of trial, the jury heard testimony from Chris Gilham, who was the husband of Kimberly at the time of her death and a witness of the alleged incident. Under direct examination from prosecutors, he described the events leading up to his wife’s alleged hit-and-run death, as well as escalating tensions with the defendant.

According to Chris, he left the south Kalispell Domino’s where he worked just after 12:30 a.m. on June 18, 2023, in his Chevy Trailblazer to head to his residence in Martin City, stopping at Super 1 along the way for energy drinks before returning home to his wife, 3-year-old daughter and 13-year-old stepdaughter.

When his home on First Avenue North was in sight, he noticed a truck was in the alley where he normally parked. He drove north and east, past the house to the next intersection. He turned back around in the alley heading west when he recognized the silver Chevy Silverado as Floyd’s. Since the truck’s dome light was on, he was able to identify Floyd and Kimberly inside the truck, where they were drinking. The truck was in the middle of the alley with the headlights on.

Chris said he drove west through the alley and parked just past Floyd’s Silverado, which was facing east, with enough room for the pickup truck to pass. When Chris stopped his vehicle, he told the jury he got out of his Trailblazer, walked up to Floyd’s driver-side window and began knocking and yelling “what the f***?”

The witness told Montana Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Eric Kitzmiller, who is serving as a special deputy county attorney in the case, during questioning that he was upset because his wife was drinking alcohol, which was against medical advice due to her alcohol-induced cirrhosis.

At this point, he said, Kimberly exited Floyd’s vehicle and walked to the front of the Silverado while Chris remained at the driver-side door. At that point, Floyd drove forward, striking the victim with the vehicle.

“Kim got ran over,” Chris said as he broke down with emotion on the witness stand.

According to Chris, Floyd continued driving east at about 10 to 15 miles per hour.

Chris called 911 just before 1 a.m. and ran over to the South Fork Saloon for help before returning to Kimberly, who had a severe leg injury but was responsive when emergency responders arrived at the scene.

Scott Kornblum, the paramedic on scene, testified that Kimberly was lying on the ground but sitting up and responsive with an open fracture on her left leg with controlled bleeding when he arrived. However, she began to deteriorate during the ambulance ride, which began at 1:32 a.m., and became unresponsive. After unsuccessful interventions that included an IV line to maintain her blood pressure and bag-valve-mask ventilation, she was declared deceased at Logan Health as a result of cardiac arrest.

Following a conversation with doctors, Chris said he left the hospital and drove back to his residence in Martin City where he became combative with law enforcement and called family members that included Kimberly’s sister, Nicole Stamp, and his brother-in-law, Doug Crosswhite. He also texted Floyd from Kimberly’s phone to tell him he had killed Kimberly and that he needed to turn himself in.

During cross examination, Floyd’s defense attorney, Jami Rebsom, questioned Chris about details surrounding his relationship with Kimberly, which was at times tense because of suspicions of unfaithfulness, along with her alcoholism and health issues. Floyd often enabled her alcohol use, Chris said, and Kimberly sometimes sent Floyd “provocative” photos in exchange.

The defense team showed the jury a series of text exchanges as evidence of a rocky relationship between Chris and Kimberly Gilham the month prior to the June 18 incident, including a text message from the victim saying she is “so [expletive] pissed” and that she feels like Chris’s “punching bag.” Additional text messages revealed that Kimberly believed Chris had been cheating on her with a neighbor.

Rebsom also drew attention to Chris’s behavior after he left the hospital, including when he returned to his residence, walked through crime-scene tape and was combative with Dawson Cooper, a patrol deputy with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

During Cooper’s testimony, he told the jury that Chris was uncooperative when he arrived back at the scene, breaking evidence tape and repeatedly telling them his wife had just died while telling them to “get the [expletive] out of there” before eventually calming down.

“He was fairly upset with us,” Cooper said.

Testimony will continue in Flathead County District Court Wednesday at 9 a.m.

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