Mariah Dobbs, right, and her three children, Jayden, left, Alanah, middle, and Zayn, bottom, were at a birthday party at a boat club in Michigan when Marshella Chidester, in jail jumpsuit, 66-year-old woman crashed through the building. Alanah and Zayn died while Dobbs and Jayden suffered serious injuries. (Dobbs: GoFundMe; Chidester: WXYZ/YouTube)
A Michigan woman was convicted of second-degree murder on Thursday for barreling through a boat club last year during a “kid’s dream birthday” — leading to the deaths of a 4-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister — in a one-of-a-kind DUI crash case, which saw prosecutors use video from inside the driver’s own home of her binge drinking and “staggering” as evidence.
“I can’t think of an instance where something like that has occurred,” Assistant Monroe County Prosecutor Jeff Yorkey told the Detroit Free Press after Marshella Chidester was convicted Thursday, in reference to the use of security footage.
It reportedly took jurors just 90 minutes to deliver a guilty verdict after a four-day trial this week, where they were shown security footage from the day of the crash showing the 67-year-old consuming wine and stumbling inside her Newport residence, which is roughly 30 miles south of the Motor City.
“I had not seen that video at all,” Brian Phillip, father of the two victims, Alanah and Zayn Phillips, told the Detroit Free Press. “I seen her in the house walking and seeing how she was still staggering, it was haunting to see. My kids were still alive at that point … if she would have just stopped, my kids would still be alive.”
According to prosecutors, Chidester consumed a bevy of small, single-serving wine bottles that day and also visited a local bar. Security video captured inside her home shows her drinking at around 2:32 p.m.; testimony from a local store clerk placed her at the business at around 9 a.m. purchasing a four-pack of single serving pinot grigio and a regular-sized bottle of red wine.
“She took my grandbabies from us,” said Alanah and Zayn’s grandmother Kathy Phillips at a hearing last year. “She made that choice to go in that car, and she chose to drink and drive.”
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Two days after the incident, the children’s mother Maria Dodds filed a lawsuit against the owner of the local bar that Chidester visited, claiming it was negligent when it served Chidester while she was “visibly intoxicated.” The suit argued that the bar should have stopped letting Chidester drink and given her an alternate means of transportation.
“We are saddened beyond words by the news of this horrible tragedy,” the bar’s attorney John McManus, of McManus Law, said in a statement. “Our most sincere thoughts and prayers go out to all those that lost their lives, their family members, witnesses and all of our Community that is in pain due to this incident. We ask for patience during the investigation and that the Justice system be allowed to work to uncover the actual facts surrounding the accident.”
In addition to murder, Chidester was found guilty of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and five counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury. She was ordered to be held until her sentencing on May 15.
David Harris contributed to this report.
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