INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the felony criminal recklessness conviction of a woman in a crash that killed three siblings who were crossing a highway to board a school bus. However, the court Monday vacated the misdemeanor reckless driving conviction of Alyssa Shepherd because it constituted double jeopardy. A Fulton County jury convicted the Shepherd of three counts of reckless homicide, criminal recklessness and passing a school bus, causing injury for the October 2018 crash. She was sentenced to four years in prison. Shepherd's attorney said she'll seek to have the case transferred to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill's office has released information about a Court of Appeals decision in the Alyssa Shepherd case.
(You can read more from the release below.)
Alyssa Shepherd was convicted last year following a four-day jury trial on three counts of reckless homicide and other charges. On Oct. 30, 2018, Shepherd failed to stop for a school bus that had stopped to pick up children outside of a mobile home park in Fulton County. As two twin boys and their older sister crossed the southbound lane of State Road 25 to board the bus, Shepherd hit them with a truck, a collision that resulted in the children’s deaths. Shepherd also struck a fourth child, who has required 21 surgeries to address his injuries.
Shepherd appealed her convictions, arguing the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she acted recklessly and that the trial court abused its discretion when it rejected her proposed instruction on what evidence will not support a charge of reckless homicide. The appellate court rejected both arguments.
The appellate court also vacated Shepherd’s misdemeanor reckless driving conviction, finding that it was duplicative of her felony criminal recklessness conviction, which the state conceded. This will not affect her 10-year aggregate sentence. The court also remanded an issue regarding the suspension of Shepherd’s driver’s license back to the trial court.
The appellate court’s opinion is attached.
