‘I see past the alligator tears’: Woman who killed family’s siblings, ages 4 and 8, in DUI crash at ‘kid’s dream birthday party’ learns her fate
Left inset: Marshella Chidester (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Alanah and Zayn Phillips (GoFundMe). Background: Brian Phillips addressing Marshella Chidester at her sentencing on Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Monroe County, Ore. (WJBK/YouTube).
A Michigan woman convicted of barreling through a boat club last year during a “kid’s dream birthday party” — leading to the deaths of a 4-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister — faced the victims’ grieving parents at her sentencing on Thursday, with each of them taking turns savaging her for what she “took” from them.
“You don’t have no kids, so you don’t know what it feels like,” said Brian Phillips, father of Alanah Phillips, 8, and Zayn Phillips, 4, in his victim impact statement to Marshella Chidester during her sentencing in Monroe County, which was broadcast on YouTube by local Fox affiliate WJBK.
Chidester, 67, was handed a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison after she was convicted in March on charges of second-degree murder, OWI causing death, and five counts of OWI causing serious injury for the April 2024 crash. She stared directly at Brian Phillips and his children’s mother, Mariah Dodds, while they took turns condemning her in impact statements.
“What you took from me, I will never ever get back,” Brian said. “My daughter was trying to be just like me playing basketball. She just celebrated her 8th birthday. Zayn was about to be 5. Instead of celebrating … we buried them.”
Speaking for over 20 minutes, Dodds told Chidester and the court: “I’ll never know the answers as to why she didn’t stop the first time she ran into something before coming towards the boat club. She showed no remorse for what she has caused. I see past the alligator tears, going on TV and laughing it off like it was no big deal. Like it was just a silly mistake. It was like a big slap to my face.”
It reportedly took jurors just 90 minutes to deliver a guilty verdict for Chidester after they were shown security footage of the 67-year-old consuming wine and stumbling inside her Newport residence, which is roughly 30 miles south of Detroit, on the day of the crash.
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., and 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 later claimed to forget what had happened and told police she couldn’t remember the crash.
Dodds said Wednesday that she felt “absolutely disgusted” after hearing Chidester’s claims and seeing how she’s reacted,
“She is an evil and sick individual in my eyes,” the mom blasted.
“If Michigan offered the death penalty, I would highly recommend it for her,” Dodds added. “No punishment can undo what has been taken from me.”
Chidester showed little emotion at the sentencing, though she did try expressing remorse when given the opportunity to speak.
“I’ve been thinking about what I was going to say to you for over a year,” Chidester told Dobbs and Phillips. “It was a terrible, terrible tragedy. I can’t help but say I am so very, very sorry for the loss of your children. I pray for them every day. … I’ve asked the Lord to forgive me, and I ask you to at least look into your heart, and at some point if you can possibly forgive me, I’d appreciate that so much.”
Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Daniel White told Chidester he believed the jury and court got everything right with her conviction and sentence, noting how the evidence against her was “overwhelming.”
Describing how Chidester claimed she forgot everything, White said, “Perhaps that’s how you get away from the horror of such a thing, is just to say, ‘I don’t remember what happened.’ But for me and for the court, the evidence is what we consider.”
Jurors convicted Chidester after a four-day trial. She was also found guilty of operating a motor vehicle while impaired causing serious injury for causing injuries to five other people, including the victims’ older brother and Dodds.
Friends, family mourn 19-year-old killed in Fresno County DUI crash
Neighbors in the area of the crash where Olivia Mendoza was killed say the intersection has been a problem for years.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Olivia Mendoza was driving home to her dad’s house on Friday night.
She had plans to meet up with a friend later in the evening but never even made it home.
“We heard screeching tires and crunching metal and I looked at the intersection. I saw this diesel wrecked into another one going up the hill at that time. I didn’t even realize there was a car there,” says Andrew Barela.
31-year old Andre Hill crashed his semi into Mendoza’s car just after 7 p.m. at the Clovis and Mountain View intersection in Fresno County.
Officers say the Baltimore Maryland truck driver failed a sobriety test and couldn’t even walk in a straight line.
They believe he was high on marijuana.
Neighbors in the area say the intersection has been a problem for years.
“Ever since I’ve been here that been a pretty terrible cross section there,” Barela says.
He says that they’ve witnessed many accidents at that exact spot and the added stop signs are just not enough.
Now it’s a loss her family and friends will have to deal with for years to come…
“Olivia was the purest, most genuine person I’ve ever met, she would always make us laugh,” says Roxanna Guerrero, her friend. “They don’t suffer the consequences we do. and now shes gone.”
Mendoza’s friends have already set up a small memorial at the intersection.
Mendoza was a Fresno state student who wanted to study criminal law.
Her friends and co-workers say she always brought a smile to their faces..
“She was always laughing, always smiling, just would radiate positive energy and love,” says Elzie Lozano.
Hill faces three felonies and his bail is set at over $98,000.
P1 Photo of the Week: There are no small cops, just tall suspects
(PoliceOne Image)
This week’s photo comes from Salinas City (Utah) Officer Eric Pratt, who writes: “My close friend with Utah Highway Patrol sent me these photos from a traffic stop that resulted in the arrest of the rather tall fellow for suspicion of DUI. As you can see it was quite the feat just getting through the SFSTs, and he had to call for a specialized transport just to get the suspect to jail. I couldn’t stop laughing.”
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Every week, we select a Photo of the Week from a Police1 member to feature in our Member Newsletter, Police1’s Instagram page and Police1’s YouTube channel. Photos range from cruisers to copters to K-9s, and everything in between.
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