Michigan Woman Sentenced Over Boat Club Tragedy That Killed 2 Children
One of the worst crashes ever to hit Monroe County community came crashing down when Marshella Chidester, 67-year-old Newport, Michigan, was sentenced to a 25 to 50 year prison sentence after she pleaded guilty to drunk driving fatal crash. The crash had taken place on April 20, 2024, at the Swan Boat Club that had been converted into a nightmare of what could have been otherwise a birthday party celebration.
Deadly Wreck Fatally Killed Two Little Brother’s Children
The fatal wreck killed 8-year-old Alanah and 4-year-old Zayn Phillips and seriously injured numerous other individuals. Drunk Chidester smashed her SUV rear-end into the party facility, killing the two little children and seriously injuring many of them, including big brother and mother.
A jury in March 2025 convicted Chidester of:
- Two second-degree murders
- Two OUI-caused deaths
- Five charges of aggravated OUI injury
Emotional Sentencing Day
Both sets of victim victims Brian Phillips’ and Mariah Dodds’ parents, the parents testified forcefully and emotively at the defendant’s sentencing hearing regarding the unutterable agony that they continue to experience.
Brian explained the day in question when he realized something was not right receiving unexpected calls from his children and other family members, then going to the location only to realize that his children were not there.
“What thou has taken from me, I never get back,” he read slowly, his own voice shaking with desperation.
Mariah stood up for the enormity of love that she had experienced from her children and the way their death left a hollow space with her own self always. She rose to the feeling of guilt that as a human being she is compelled to experience when she does something as ordinary as putting on a pair of socks, that she came to realize that she would not see her children live. Her son Jayden, who was the sole survivor of the accident, had his message delivered to court:
“She destroyed my life. I want her to pay. I want her to spend the rest of her life in prison.”
Judge: “It Wasn’t Just an Accident, It Was a Crime”
Trial Judge Daniel S. White did not hesitate to mouth the enormity of Chidester’s crime when he pronounced point-blank that this was no accident a crime. He upheld the guilty vote in the jury room, and also emphasized that there was no doubt in evidence of her guilt. Surveillance tapes, eye-witnesses, and blood alcohol all were not hesitant to hold anything in reserve when they painted a bleak picture of wantonness.
Chidester’s blood-alcohol content was nearly twice the legal limit, and all complaints that she had been experiencing difficulty with her ankle and drove irresponsibly were rejected by the jury.
Defense Appeals to Remorse and Youth
Remorsefully, Chidester testified: “I am so very sorry, and I never ever meant to come across as not being sorrowful.”
Her defense attorney, James Amberg, presented her case, accepted the ghastly details of the accident but testified that Chidester actually suffered crushing remorse. He pleaded on a consideration of age 67 “so even a lighter sentence will effectively be life in prison.”
But still, the judge imposed the maximum sentence, caving to gravity of lives lost and calls for justice.
A Tragedy That Changed Lives Forever
This avoidable preventable tragedy not only has been cause for family shame and cause for the Phillips family, but for Monroe County as well. What was once a cause for celebration and family reunions, the Swan Boat Club is now a cause for preventable avoidable loss.
The desperate pleas of the parents resonated in the courtroom, reminding all of the horrible consequences of drinking and driving on the highways. It reminds every driver of accountability that not only must they buckle themselves up, but that they owe it to others as well.
As Chidester begins her sentence, the Phillips’ family begins to move toward grief, trying to come to terms with a tragedy that will never be discussed.
