{"id":42366,"date":"2025-05-16T02:55:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T07:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42366"},"modified":"2025-05-16T02:55:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T07:55:49","slug":"drunken-driver-sentenced-to-25-years-for-birthday-party-crash-that-killed-2-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=42366","title":{"rendered":"Drunken driver sentenced to 25 years for birthday party crash that killed 2 kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">MONROE, Mich. &#8212;&nbsp;A drunken driver who&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vehicle-crash-boat-club-children-birthday-party-5932669f804165ca86946a5b31ef6a96\">crashed her SUV into a birthday party<\/a>&nbsp;at a Michigan boat club, killing two children, was sentenced Thursday to at least 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Marshella Chidester sat just a few feet away as the parents of 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and her 4-year-old brother Zayn Phillips described the impact of the devastating loss last year at what was supposed to be a celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat grief has been unbearable. &#8230; She took everything in my life and destroyed it,&#8221; Mariah Dodds said through tears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Security video showed an SUV zipping along a dusty, pitted road at 44 mph (71 kph) before crashing into the side of the Swan Boat Club, near Lake Erie, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Chidester, 67, was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/birthday-party-crash-michigan-boat-club-e52c254de43697011eccfee59bb85cb6\">found guilty of second-degree murder<\/a>&nbsp;and other charges after a four-day trial in March in Monroe County. Her blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit to drive, according to evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Chidester&#8217;s trial lawyer suggested a leg problem could have caused her to press hard on the gas pedal, a claim the jury rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Because of her age, Chidester could die in prison before she becomes eligible for parole in 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI&#8217;ve asked the Lord to forgive me,\u201d Chidester said in court, \u201cand I ask you to at least look into your heart and at some point if you can possibly forgive me, I would appreciate that so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Chidester lived close to the boat club and had many personal connections to it, her lawyer said. Her father started it, she was a former commodore and she held her wedding reception there, her lawyer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/michigan-drunken-driver-sentenced-25-years-birthday-party-121855136\">abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MONROE, Mich. &#8212;&nbsp;A drunken driver who&nbsp;crashed her SUV into a birthday party&nbsp;at a Michigan boat club, killing two children, was sentenced Thursday to at least 25 years in prison for second-degree murder. Marshella Chidester sat just a few feet away as the parents of 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and her 4-year-old brother Zayn Phillips described the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":42367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1996,33309,1692],"class_list":["post-42366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-driver","tag-drunken","tag-sentenced"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42368,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42366\/revisions\/42368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}