(WWJ) — A Monroe County judge has denied three motions to have certain evidence withheld from the trial of Marshella Chidester, the woman accused in the deadly Swan Boat Club crash last spring.
Chidester is facing murder and other charges, stemming from the April 20, 2024 crash in Newport that killed two young children and injured about a dozen other people.
Prosecutors say Chidester, 67, was drunk when she drove about 25 feet into the boat club building during a children’s birthday party. Two siblings — 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and 4-year-old Zayn Phillips — were killed while their mother and their 11-year-old brother were among the injured victims.
A Walker Hearing was held Monday to determine whether statements Chidester made to police immediately after the crash — and prior to being read her Miranda rights — would be allowed to be used during her trial, slated to start on March 3.
Her defense team wanted her statements, captured on police body camera footage, to be excluded from the trial, but Judge Daniel White ruled the evidence will be allowed in court.
Among those statements caught on camera, Chidester said "I thought I was driving up to the boat club, and evidently I was driving right into the building.”
When asked how she was feeling on a scale of 0-10 — with zero being completely sober and 10 being ‘passed out drunk — Chidester said she was a “seven,” and also told a sheriff’s deputy she “wouldn’t want to drive.”
Chidester’s defense team claims she had only had one drink prior to driving that day and she suffered a seizure behind the wheel.
Defense counsel is considering appealing Monday’s decision ahead of the trial.
Chidester’s attorneys are also fighting her blood alcohol content results. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for later this month.
In total, Chidester is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death and four counts of OWI causing serious injury.