Monroe — A woman who drove her car into a boat club in April, killing two children and injuring 11 others, was bound over for trial Thursday after testimony in her preliminary exam showed she had a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit and had told police that she shouldn't be driving.
One of the spectators in the crowded courtroom yelled "yes" when 1st District Court Judge Michael Brown found that prosecutors had provided enough evidence to bind over all charges against Marshella Chidester, 66, of Newport.
Chidester is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating under the influence of alcohol causing death and four counts of operating under the influence of alcohol causing serious injury. She faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The decision came Thursday afternoon after Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy Steven Schmidt testified earlier that Chidester had a blood alcohol level of 0.18. The legal limit in Michigan is 0.08, and the state super drunk definition is 0.17.
Ken Laurain, assistant prosecuting attorney for Monroe County, declined to discuss the judge's decision, while Chidester's attorney, Bill Colovos, said he looked forward to proving her innocence. He said during an earlier arraignment that Chidester drank a single glass of wine and her impairment was caused by seizures.
"When the medical records come out, you'll see about the seizures," Colovos told The Detroit News on Thursday.
After the crash at Swan Boat Club on April 20, Chidester smelled like alcohol and had trouble maintaining her balance, testified Sgt. Michael Bomia, who was the first deputy on the scene. In a field sobriety test, she recited the alphabet correctly but had trouble focusing on the deputy's finger and counting backward from 100, Bomia said.
Chidester, responding to questions from another deputy at the crash site, said she shouldn’t be driving and rated her drunkenness at 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly drunk. She said she had been drinking wine 30 minutes before the crash and was on medication for seizures.
"I wouldn't want to drive," she told another deputy, Schmidt, after he asked whether she should be driving.
Chidester told Schmidt that she didn’t remember what happened, according to Thursday's testimony.
“I pulled into the parking lot,” she told Schmidt, according to a video played during the hearing. “I thought I was driving up to the boat club. Evidently, I was driving right into the building.”
“You don’t remember what happened?” Schmidt asked.
“You know what, I have these seizures,” she said.
The crash killed 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and her 4-year-old brother, Zayn Phillips. Their mother, Mariah Dodds, and another sibling were among the injured.
Defense lawyer challenges video
Chidester is a former commodore at the boat club, which is located off Swan Creek near Lake Erie. It’s a membership-based organization that hosts holiday parties and other events, and provides docking space for members who own boats, according to its website.
Colovos argued against showing the video of Chidester, saying prosecutors hadn't directly proved she had been read her Miranda rights. The prosecutor indicated the rights had been given, but Colovos said the prosecution needed to produce the officer who read Chidester her rights before the video of her interview could be introduced. The judge let the video be shown after he was assured the Miranda rights had been administered.
During the Thursday hearing, another video showed Chidester getting into her car moments before the crash. The video, taken from a camera across the street from her home, shows her walking unsteadily from her home to her car.
Chidester quickly backed out of her driveway into the road and, while driving backward, swerved onto the shoulder of the road, according to the video. The camera momentarily loses view of her and then showed her driving frontward in the opposite direction toward the boat club, which is 500 feet from her home.
A neighbor had told police earlier that someone had rammed his car, pushing it into a fence, in the moments before the boat club crash. The video showed the collision, and a deputy testified Thursday that Chidester's car was involved in two crashes, the club and the car.
Dead children's mom testifies
Among the injured people who testified during the hearing Thursday was Dodds, the mother of the two children who died.
Dodds and her children were at a party at the boat club for the 3-year-old child of Dodds' friend, according to a Detroit law firm representing Dodds' family in a lawsuit against Chidester and the tavern where she reportedly was before the crash.
She said the only thing she remembered about the crash were the voices of several relatives. The relatives, who weren’t the two children who died, sounded far away, she said.
Her last memory before the accident was a happy one, Dodds said. She walking back to the table where her children were sitting and eating.
“I was laughing,” Dodds said.
Her next memory was waking up in a hospital room, where she remained for four days, she testified. One of her three children who survived was also hospitalized, she said.
Two months after the wreck, her son still needs more rehabilitation before he regains the ability to walk, Dodds said.
Videos show people screaming
During the hearing at 1st District Court in Monroe, Chidester’s attorney objected to the showing of several of the videos, arguing they weren't relevant. He said he had provided the county prosecutor's office with medical records about her condition.
Other videos played during the hearing showed the aftermath of crash, with people screaming while others scooped up children and fled the scene.
One video from the boat club showed a car traveling at a high rate of speed through the club's parking lot and then veering into the building at around 3 p.m. on April 20.
Another video showed people trying to clear debris and get to people trapped by the car against a wall. A child could be seen being pulled from behind a counter near where the car crashed.
"It was a chaotic scene," Bomia said.
In another scene, people could be seen pulling a woman from the floor, bloodied by the crash.
In a body-worn camera from a Monroe County sheriff's deputy, Chidester is shown sitting in a chair as the deputy arrives at the chaotic scene. Chidester was taken outside to the police car, where she answered questions.
Colovos said earlier that Chidester had blacked out from a seizure behind the wheel and didn’t remember the crash or anything leading up to it.
More:Aunt of siblings killed at party: 'We were supposed to be planning a birthday ... not a funeral'
Chidester suffers from neuropathy and has epileptic-like seizures in her legs, Colovos said earlier. She was hospitalized last fall after being treated for epileptic-type seizures in her legs, he said.
Two Metro Detroit medical experts told The Detroit News in May that the medical condition attributed to the woman may affect one's ability to drive, but the condition is not known for causing a loss of consciousness.
More:Medical experts weigh in on conditions attributed to driver in Swan Boat Club crash
Prosecutors said during an arraignment in April that Chidester drunkenly crashed her SUV into a boat club that was hosting a child's birthday party. They said she has had substance abuse issues. But Colovos said Chidester had no traffic tickets or police record.
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