Woman Sentenced for Drunk Driving Crash That Killed 4- and 8-Year-Old Siblings at Birthday Party

A Michigan woman was found guilty of driving through a boat club last year during a “kid’s dream birthday party,” killing a 4-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister. At her sentencing on Thursday, the parents of the victims took turns berating her for what she “took” from them.

Brian Phillips, father of Alanah Phillips, 8, and Zayn Phillips, 4, told Marshella Chidester, “You don’t have kids, so you don’t know what it feels like.” This was in his victim impact statement to Chidester during her sentencing in Monroe County, which was shown on YouTube.

In March, Chidester, 67, was found guilty of second-degree murder, OWI causing death, and five counts of OWI causing serious injury in the April 2024 crash. She was given a sentence of 25 to 50 years in jail. She looked right at Brian Phillips and Mariah Dodds, the mother of his children, as they each said bad things about her in impact statements.

Bryan said, “What you took from me, I will never get back.” “When we played basketball, my daughter tried to be like me.” Her eighth birthday was not long ago. Ziyn was almost five years old. Instead of having a party, we buried them.

Dodds talked to Chidester and the court for more than 20 minutes. He said, “I’ll never know why she didn’t stop the first time she hit something before coming toward the boat club.” It wasn’t clear that she felt bad about what she did. I can look past the alligator tears and laugh about it on TV like it’s not a big deal. As if it were a simple mistake. It hit me hard.

Reports say it only took the jurors 90 minutes to find Chidester guilty after seeing security video of the 67-year-old drinking wine and stumbling around in her home in Newport, which is about 30 miles south of Detroit, on the day of the crash.

Authorities say Chidester drank a lot of small, single-serving bottles of wine that day and also went to a nearby bar. At around 2:32 p.m., security video from inside her home shows her drinking. A nearby store clerk said she saw her at the business around 9 a.m., buying a case of single-serving pinot grigio and a regular-sized bottle of red wine. In the end, she said she forgot what had happened and told cops she couldn’t remember the crash.

Dodds said on Wednesday that hearing Chidester’s claims and seeing how she’s responded made her feel “absolutely disgusted.”

“In my opinion, she is a bad and sick person,” the mom yelled.

“If Michigan had the death penalty, I would strongly urge it be used on her,” Dodds said. “Beating myself up won’t bring back what was taken away from me.”

Chidester didn’t show much emotion during the sentencing, but when she had the chance to talk, she tried to show regret.

“I’ve thought about what I was going to say to you for more than a year,” Chidester told Phillips and Dobbs. “It was a terrible tragedy.” I’m so sorry about the death of your children. Every day, I pray for them. I begged the Lord to forgive me, and I beg you to at least look into your heart. If you can forgive me at some point, I’d really appreciate it.

Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Daniel White told Chidester that he thought the jury and court did the right thing when they found her guilty and gave her her punishment. He said that the evidence against her was “overwhelming.”

It was White who 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.'” Chidester said she forgot everything. But for the court and me, the proof is what we look at.

After a four-day hearing, the jury found Chidester guilty. She was also found guilty of driving a car while impaired, which caused major injuries to five other people, including the victims’ older brother and Dodds.

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