A judge on Tuesday set a $1.5 million bond for a Newport woman charged with eight crimes related to the fatal crash at the Swan Boat Club in Monroe County.
Marshella Chidester stared forward blankly in Monroe County’s district court as Raquel Smouthers, in sobs, recalled the moment she told her sister Mariah Dodds that Dodds’ two young children were killed.
Chidester, 66, of Newport is accused of driving drunk and plowing her SUV into a birthday party Saturday at the club in Newport.
Dodds and three of her children were attending the party. Two of Dodds children, 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and 4-year-old Zayn Phillips, were killed, and over a dozen other people were injured. Dodds and her 11-year-old son survived, but are still hospitalized. Both of the boy’s legs and some ribs are broken and his skull is fractured.
“I had to be the one to tell my sister her babies were gone when they removed her ventilator yesterday. She said: ‘How am I supposed to live without my babies?’ “ Smouthers said.
Chidester continued to look ahead as she sat in her striped jumpsuit and orange slippers, her right arm in a cast. She did not react when Judge Christian Horkey read the charges against her aloud: two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and four counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing serious injuries.
Monroe County Prosecutor Jeffery Yorkey asked for a $1.5 million cash bond, pointing to a history of “severe substance abuse” allegedly corroborated by friends and family of Chidester. Judge Horkey agreed.
Chidester’s arraignment on Tuesday was filled with tense moments as even more members of Dodds’ family and community members, who attended the court hearing virtually on the web, interrupted Chidester’s lawyer, Bill Colovos, as he attempted to argue that his client suffered seizures in her legs and only had one glass of wine that day.
Colovos compared the high bond to burning his client at the stake “by just craziness” and “crazy words.”
Horkey also ordered bond conditions should Chidester post bond, including alcohol testing, a tether, and she would be prohibited from drinking or driving.
Chidester isn’t a monster, Colovos said. She lived a quiet, retired life with her husband right down the road from the club, he said.
Colovos’ theory, he argues, was that Chidester was invited to the birthday party that day and had a seizure on the way to the party. Chidester doesn’t remember what happened and “feels horrible,” he said. He noted that his client has a clean criminal record and no traffic violations. Colovos said they are waiting for tests to determine her blood alcohol levels.
But Dodds’ loved ones and community members interrupted Colovos with statements, including “she was drunk.”
The children’s grandmother, Kathy Phillips, spoke as well.
“She took my grandbabies from us,” Phillips said. “She made that choice to go in that car, and she choose to drink and drive.”
The family’s lives are destroyed, Smouthers said.
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“Nobody should ever have to go to a birthday party thinking that they’re gonna die,” Smouthers said, who came to the scene after the crash and saw her deceased niece and nephew the last moment before the car was removed.
“It’s a horrible, dramatic thing. I cannot close my eyes at night without seeing the babies and what they look like,” she said.
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at 313-264-0442 orasahouri@freepress.com.