An Indiana woman who plowed her pickup truck into four children, killing three of them as they crossed a two-lane highway to board their school bus was denied an appeal Monday, NBC affiliate WNDU reported.
In December, Alyssa Shepherd, 25, of Rochester, Indiana, was sentenced to four years in prison as well as one year of house arrest and one year of probation for each of the three counts of reckless homicide she was convicted of and her driver’s license was also suspended for 10 years.
Authorities said on Oct. 30, 2018, Shepherd was driving a pickup truck at around 7:30 a.m. when she struck four children who were crossing a two-lane road to board a Tippecanoe Valley School Corp. bus near Rochester, about 100 miles north of Indianapolis.
Six-year-old twin brothers Xzavier and Mason Ingle, and their 9-year-old sister, Alivia Stahl, were killed. 11-year-old Maverik Lowe was also struck but survived but with serious injuries.
In a unanimous decision, the Indiana Court of Appeals denied Shepherd's appeal Monday.
An appeal was filed in May arguing the state did not provide sufficient evidence that Alyssa Shepherd, 25, was acting criminally reckless.
At the time of her arrest, Shepherd told authorities she didn’t realize that she was approaching a school bus, despite the activated stop arm and flashing lights. Court documents show Shepherd told police she saw the lights but didn’t recognize the vehicle as a school bus until the children were right in front of her.
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The crash led to statewide changes, prompting the Legislature to increase penalties for drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses.
