Woman Sentenced for DUI Crash at Party That Killed Two Children

In Michigan, a woman found guilty of crashing through a boat club during a previous year’s “kid’s dream birthday party” — resulting in the tragic deaths of a 4-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister — encountered the heartbroken parents of the victims at her Thursday sentencing. Each parent delivered strong messages about the immense loss she caused them.

“Without children of your own, you can’t truly understand the pain,” said Brian Phillips, the father of 8-year-old Alanah and 4-year-old Zayn, speaking during the victim impact segment directed at Marshella Chidester in Monroe County. This event was aired via YouTube by the 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.