It's a mystery on the streets of New York City. What traffic law violator with unpaid fines is driving a black Pontiac Trans Am that looks like the car with the talking computer from the 1980s TV series “Knight Rider," and even has the same license plate?
Officials at an Illinois museum are among the people who would like to know. The Volo Museum near Chicago, which has a replica of the show's Trans Am that hasn't moved from its exhibit in years, recently received a $50 traffic ticket from the Big Apple, alleging its car was doing 36 mph (59 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone in Brooklyn on April 22.
The ticket came complete with traffic camera photos showing a black Trans Am with the California license plate KNIGHT, the same plate as the car on the show and the novelty one on the museum's unregistered car. The license plate is also connected to five other unpaid traffic violations in New York City since late 2024, city records show.
How the city linked the plate to the museum was not immediately clear. City officials did not immediately respond to email and phone messages Wednesday.
“The fact that we’re legally tied to a movie prop is interesting,” said Jim Wojdyla, the museum's marketing director. “We’re known for having our Hollywood cars from TV and movies, but I have no idea how we got registered from a ticket in New York to the plates in California to the Volo Museum in Illinois. We’re still trying to figure it out.”
The museum has requested a hearing challenging the ticket.
“It’s really amusing,” Wojdyla said. "We want to find out who this Knight Rider guy is because, birds of a feather. We just want to know is this from a museum, is this just a guy that built this car as a hobby? And it looks pretty damn accurate. We’d like to meet those guys.”
“Knight Rider” starring David Hasselhoff as a crime fighter aired on NBC from 1982 to 1986 and featured KITT, the black Trans Am with a snarky talking computer. (KITT stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand). Around 20 KITTS were built for the show but only five of the originals remain, Road & Track magazine has reported.
There are also numerous replicas around, including the museum's. The Facebook group Knight Rider KITT Car Club for people who own replicas has nearly 19,000 members.
According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, a person with the last name Knight renewed their registration for the state plate KNIGHT in March.
New York City is authorized by state law to operate up to 750 cameras with speed detectors. When a camera catches a speeder, it records photos of the vehicle and its license plate. Staff at the city's Department of Transportation review the violations and mail tickets to the vehicle owners if the vehicles were going more than 10 mph (16 kph) over the speed limit, the city's website says.
The Volo Museum is having fun with the ticket trouble on its social media sites. It recently changed its header on its Facebook page to “Home of the Knight Rider KITT that famously got a speeding ticket in New York City without ever leaving its exhibit in Illinois!”
“Does anyone have Hasselhoff's number? He owes us $50!!!!” one of its posts says.
This image provided by the New York Department of Finance shows a black Pontiac Trans Am with the same license plate as the Pontiac Trans Am from the 1980s TV series, “Knight Rider," speeding in a school zone, April 22, 2026, in New York. (New York Department of Finance via AP)
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him took the stand Wednesday to tell her sons to always “be like your dad” before judge was set to determine her prison sentence.
Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband's cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022.
Prosecutors said Richins, a 35-year-old real estate agent with a house-flipping business, was millions in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband Eric Richins without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.
Richins stood at the podium in a lime green jail uniform as she asked her sons, who were not present in court, “Please just don't give up on me.”
Richins faces several decades to life in prison. She has been adamant in maintaining she is innocent, saying Wednesday that the verdict was “an absolute lie.”
Jurors also found Richins guilty of four other felonies, including attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich.
Eric Richins’ father, Eugene Richins, urged Judge Richard Mrazik to impose a life sentence without the possibility of parole to protect his grandsons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died.
“This sentence is important so Eric’s three sons never have to live with the fear that the person responsible for taking their father could ever harm them again,” he said during the sentencing hearing, which fell on the day his son would have turned 44.
The case captivated true-crime enthusiasts when Richins was arrested in 2023 while promoting her children’s book about a boy coping with the death of his father.
Richins' sons “are not props for some twisted children’s book about grief and loss, and yet that is what they’ve been reduced to by Kouri,” said her sister-in-law Katie Richins-Benson, who now has the boys in her care.
Social workers read letters from the sons, who all said they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison. The children said Richins threatened to kill their animals and showed them videos of famished children in war zones when they refused to eat undercooked food.
“You took away my dad for no reason other than greed, and you only cared about yourself and your stupid boyfriends,” said the middle son, now 11. He described having to “be a parent” to his younger brother because his mother did not watch over them. Richins made the boy paranoid about sitting on his dad's side of the bed, saying he might die, too, he alleged.
The oldest son, now 13, said he also felt like he had to take care of his siblings, but his younger brother “mostly took care of me, though, because I was locked in my room.” He said his mother would lock him inside “pretty much daily” while she was drunk.
“I will and have always prioritized your safety," Richins said in court after hearing her sons' statements.
The most serious charge, aggravated murder, is punishable either by a range of 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.
Prison time for the attempted aggravated murder charge depends on the severity of the bodily injury that occurred. After taking a bite of the sandwich his wife left for him, Eric Richins broke out in hives, injected himself with his son’s EpiPen, drank a bottle of Benadryl and passed out, prosecutors said. Depending on the judge's assessment, Kouri Richins could face 15 years to life, 6 years to life or 5 years to life for that charge.
Two counts of insurance fraud, second-degree felonies, each carry a 1-15 year sentence, and a third-degree felony forgery charge is punishable by 0-5 years in prison.
The judge has discretion to decide whether Richins' prison sentences for each count will overlap or stack up.
Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.
The trial was scheduled for five weeks but ended early when her defense team rested its case without calling any witnesses. Her attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors had not produced enough evidence to convict her of murder.
The jury deliberated for just under three hours before finding her guilty of all counts.
During the trial, prosecutors showed the jury text messages between Richins and her lover in which she fantasized about leaving her husband and gaining millions in a divorce. Prosecutors also displayed the internet search history from Richins’ phone, which included queries about the lethal dose of fentanyl, luxury prisons and how poisoning is marked on a death certificate.
The defense argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers. Prosecutors countered by showing police body camera footage from the night of his death in which Kouri Richins tells an officer that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.
Gene Richins makes an impact statement during the sentencing of Kouri Richins in 3rd District Court in Park City, Utah, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Amy Richins makes an impact statement during the sentencing of Kouri Richins in 3rd District Court in Park City, Utah, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Kouri Richins appears at a sentencing hearing with her defense attorney Wendy Lewis, left, in 3rd District Court in Park City on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
Kouri Richins appears at a sentencing hearing with her defense attorney Wendy Lewis, left, in 3rd District Court in Park City on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool)
FILE -Kouri Richins looks on during her murder trial at the Summit County Courthouse in Park City, Utah, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, Pool, File)
