Driver In Fatal Bus Accident Sentenced; Victims’ Mom Arrested
December 19, 2019 at 1:29 a.m.
By Amanda [email protected]
Shepherd was convicted by a jury Oct. 18 of three counts of reckless homicide, Level 5 felonies; reckless driving causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor; and criminal recklessness, a Level 6 felony. She faced up to 21-1/2 years.
On Wednesday, Heller sentenced her on each of the three reckless homicide counts to three years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, with one year executed, one year to be served on Fulton County Community Corrections home detention, and one year suspended to probation.
He also sentenced her to one year executed for Counts IV and V, to be served concurrently, but consecutively to her other sentences.
The sentence amounts to four years of prison time, three years in community corrections and three years of probation.
Shepherd’s driver’s license also was suspended for 10 years.
Heller said the reason the sentences run consecutively is because it would diminish the life of each child if they ran concurrently. Heller also acknowledged that some people may feel the sentence is too strong, while others may feel the sentence is too lenient.
The victims’ families had asked Heller for the maximum sentence. After court adjourned Wednesday, Brittany Ingle, the mother of the children killed, lunged at Shepherd and made contact. Ingle was escorted out of the courthouse in handcuffs and booked in the Fulton County Jail for misdemeanor battery.
Before he handed down the sentence, Heller said mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factor that the victims were all less than 12 years old. Heller cited Shepherd’s lack of criminal history, the fact that the crime is unlikely to reoccur because legislation for bus safety has improved due in large part to the MAXSTRONG Foundation, and that Shepherd would likely respond well to probation or short-term imprisonment.
Heller explained that Level 5 felonies carry a sentence of 1 to 6 years, with the advisory sentence being 3; Level 6 felonies carry a sentence of 1/2 to 2-1/2 years, with the advisory sentence being 1; and that an A misdemeanor carries a sentence of 0 to 1 year, with no advisory sentence, adding that these sentencing laws would be followed by the court.
Shepherd was remanded to the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff, despite her attorneys’ request to give her a bond because she plans to appeal. Heller denied that request.
At 7:15 a.m. Oct. 30, 2018, Shepherd disregarded a stopped school bus on Ind. 25 north of Rochester and struck and killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl, her 6-year-old twin brothers, Mason and Xzavier Ingle, and severely injured 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, as they were crossing the highway to get on their bus.
Shepherd has always maintained she did not recognize the vehicle as a school bus.
Heller heard from several people during Wednesday’s sentencing. Shepherd’s husband Neil was the first to take the stand.
Neil told Heller that he’s originally from Warsaw, has been married to Alyssa for five years and that they have two children. He called his wife a hard worker, kind, loving and “always puts other people first.”
“Oct. 30, 2018, was life changing for us,” he said. “The only reason she was out that morning was because of me.”
Shepherd was taking Neil to work that day in Talma, something she usually didn’t do. Neil said he wishes he could trade places with his wife right now.
“She falls apart every night, shaking uncontrollably, screaming from night terrors,” he said. “She will continue to suffer and be saddened the rest of her life.”
Next, Heller heard from Shalena Rude, a church friend of Shepherd’s, who told the judge how much Jesus means to the defendant. She talked about how they would go on walks with their children, take their children to the zoo and how Shepherd had found a Christian curriculum she was planning on homeschooling to her two children.
“I’m telling you these things because taking Alyssa from this community would be like removing your best soldier on the front lines of the spiritual warfare.”
Next to speak was Daniel Muntt, Shepherd’s former pastor at Faith Outreach Church in Rochester. He said he now lives in?Iowa but that he has known Alyssa since she was little and that Shepherd and his daughter were close friends. Muntt said Shepherd has always had a positive affect on people in her school, on children and even on adults, adding he often used her character as an example on how people should live. Muntt also said he officiated Shepherd’s wedding to Neil and that “it would be a major loss to have Alyssa serve her sentence away from her family.”
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rachel Arndt then called Ingle to the stand.
Ingle spoke about the motherly way Alivia treated people and how her twins loved to be outdoors with their dad, Shane Ingle.
“Alyssa Shepherd killed his only biological children,” she said, adding that after they had the twins, Ingle got her tubes tied because their family was complete.
“They say ‘Oh, she’s never been in trouble,’” Ingle told the judge. “I myself have never been in trouble. My kids were everything to me.?i don’t even know a life without kids. We don’t know what to do.”
Ingle told Heller that she had her oldest child, Selena, when she was 17 years old. Selena would have been boarding the bus that morning but stayed home for a doctor’s appointment. Selena, 12, is now an only child, Ingle said.
Ingle said that instead of picking out Christmas presents, her family is now picking out grave blankets.
“I know you knew that was a bus. Everybody here is a driver, and when you see a squirrel or a deer, what do you do?,” Ingle asked Shepherd. “Being a Christian that you are and how much you love kids, you didn’t get down and pray for these kids that day.”
Ingle then spoke directly to Shepherd and said, “It sounds like you’re a good mom, but you know what, you can still talk to your kids. The 21-1/2 years isn’t s*** for what you did. I forever have to go to a f****** gravesite. You got your license back. What the f*** is wrong with our world?”
Ingle then spoke to?Heller and said, “I don’t hate Alyssa Shepherd. I hate what she did. This is Alivia’s second birthday in Heaven.”
Ingle then spoke to Shepherd’s family and told them if the roles were reversed and their children were killed, that they’d be asking for the maximum sentence too, and if they wouldn’t, then they’re not human.
Ingle asked Shepherd, “When you read your kids a bedtime story, and you hold them and hold their little bodies, do you ever think of what you did to mine?”
Alivia’s father, Michael Stahl, then took the stand and told Heller Alivia was his rock.
“You love your children, and you don’t love any child more than any other, but your relationships with your children are so different. Selena is my independent, very smart, good at sports child. Alivia, she was always a supporter, hands on with everybody. She cared about her brothers more than anyone in the world,” he said.
“My dad’s incarcerated. Has been my whole life, and now he’s dying,” Stahl told Shepherd. “I grew up going in and out of prison. I feel horrible for your children and your family, but not much for you.”
Stahl told Heller that Shepherd must be held accountable and asked the judge, “What is the point of having a maximum sentence on a crime if we don’t enforce it?”
Next, Shane Ingle, the father of the twins, took the stand and began crying.
“I don’t sleep very well at night. Mornings are especially hard. I looked forward to having kids. I saved baby clothes in a little box before I?had kids because I knew I would be a good dad. I contemplate suicide all the time, but the only thing I’m scared of is God won’t forgive me and I won’t see my kids again.”
Ingle said he goes to work every morning hoping he won’t get a phone call that his wife has done something to herself. He then told the judge that after Wednesday’s court proceedings, he’s checking himself into a mental health facility.
“Because I need help. Sometimes I can’t sleep. Sometimes all I do is sleep. If I want to hear my kids, I have to look at a video on my cellphone. If I want to visit my kids, I have to go to a cemetery.” Ingle said Shepherd and her children will be just fine if she goes to prison for 20 years.
Michael Schwab, the grandfather of the children, then took the stand and cried as he told the judge the victims are his grandchildren. Schwab said he doesn’t want to hear the phone ring because he never knows if it’s the call to tell him that his daughter didn’t feel like her life was worth living.
“Many nights are spent trying to convince them there’s something to live for,” he said. Schwab asked Heller to send a message that people can’t drive like Shepherd did that day and to honor his family and their request to hold her accountable.
Next, fourth-grade Mentone Elementary School teacher Sara Dye took the stand and told Heller she has never in her career had to sit, sobbing on the floor of her classroom with her students trying to explain death.
“Some asked when will they be back? Can I go visit her? Many of them had never been to a funeral, but now this tragedy is seared into their memory.”
Then Shepherd spoke, rapidly and through tears, and said that Oct. 300 will be the worst day of her life. “Worse than the four-day trial, worse than the conviction, worse than today. I can’t go back, and I am sorry. My heart breaks for each life.”
Shepherd then said she’s sorry if she comes off like she doesn’t care, because she does care, but “the only coping skill I have is make it through the day so I can melt at night.”
Prosecutor Mike Marrs said it’s about accountability.
“People want to say she’s a good person, she’s a young person, she’s a mother. We had a jury and they convicted her, that’s been done, that’s where we are and the law applies to all of us. We have a law like reckless homicide so people don’t do what she did.”
Marrs said he doesn’t know how to tell the family of the victims it’s going to be ok, because it’s not.
“Level 5 felonies, are you kidding me??You can go out and deal drugs and get 30 years in prison. You kill three kids, you get six years?,” Marrs said. “It’s a DOC case, judge.”
Marrs said he does believe Shepherd probably is remorseful behind closed doors, but that during the entire 14 months he’s been prosecuting the case, and throughout the trial, Shepherd has shown no emotion.
“Then she tells a counselor in her PSI (pre-sentence investigation report) there’s nothing she could have done to prevent the accident. She still doesn’t get it! Slow down!”
Marrs requested 14 years in IDOC, with 10 executed and 4 years on probation, along with the driver’s license suspension.
Shepherd’s attorney, Michael J. Tuszynski, told Heller his client is deeply remorseful and asked for an 8 year suspended sentence, adding, “I don’t think it’s the court’s job to send a message.”
After the sentencing, Heller said, “My heart truly goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Ingle and Mr. Stahl. There is no word or sentence I could impose that’s going to east that.”
A restitution hearing is set for 1:15 p.m. Feb. 14.
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Shepherd was convicted by a jury Oct. 18 of three counts of reckless homicide, Level 5 felonies; reckless driving causing bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor; and criminal recklessness, a Level 6 felony. She faced up to 21-1/2 years.
On Wednesday, Heller sentenced her on each of the three reckless homicide counts to three years in the Indiana Department of Corrections, with one year executed, one year to be served on Fulton County Community Corrections home detention, and one year suspended to probation.
He also sentenced her to one year executed for Counts IV and V, to be served concurrently, but consecutively to her other sentences.
The sentence amounts to four years of prison time, three years in community corrections and three years of probation.
Shepherd’s driver’s license also was suspended for 10 years.
Heller said the reason the sentences run consecutively is because it would diminish the life of each child if they ran concurrently. Heller also acknowledged that some people may feel the sentence is too strong, while others may feel the sentence is too lenient.
The victims’ families had asked Heller for the maximum sentence. After court adjourned Wednesday, Brittany Ingle, the mother of the children killed, lunged at Shepherd and made contact. Ingle was escorted out of the courthouse in handcuffs and booked in the Fulton County Jail for misdemeanor battery.
Before he handed down the sentence, Heller said mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factor that the victims were all less than 12 years old. Heller cited Shepherd’s lack of criminal history, the fact that the crime is unlikely to reoccur because legislation for bus safety has improved due in large part to the MAXSTRONG Foundation, and that Shepherd would likely respond well to probation or short-term imprisonment.
Heller explained that Level 5 felonies carry a sentence of 1 to 6 years, with the advisory sentence being 3; Level 6 felonies carry a sentence of 1/2 to 2-1/2 years, with the advisory sentence being 1; and that an A misdemeanor carries a sentence of 0 to 1 year, with no advisory sentence, adding that these sentencing laws would be followed by the court.
Shepherd was remanded to the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff, despite her attorneys’ request to give her a bond because she plans to appeal. Heller denied that request.
At 7:15 a.m. Oct. 30, 2018, Shepherd disregarded a stopped school bus on Ind. 25 north of Rochester and struck and killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl, her 6-year-old twin brothers, Mason and Xzavier Ingle, and severely injured 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, as they were crossing the highway to get on their bus.
Shepherd has always maintained she did not recognize the vehicle as a school bus.
Heller heard from several people during Wednesday’s sentencing. Shepherd’s husband Neil was the first to take the stand.
Neil told Heller that he’s originally from Warsaw, has been married to Alyssa for five years and that they have two children. He called his wife a hard worker, kind, loving and “always puts other people first.”
“Oct. 30, 2018, was life changing for us,” he said. “The only reason she was out that morning was because of me.”
Shepherd was taking Neil to work that day in Talma, something she usually didn’t do. Neil said he wishes he could trade places with his wife right now.
“She falls apart every night, shaking uncontrollably, screaming from night terrors,” he said. “She will continue to suffer and be saddened the rest of her life.”
Next, Heller heard from Shalena Rude, a church friend of Shepherd’s, who told the judge how much Jesus means to the defendant. She talked about how they would go on walks with their children, take their children to the zoo and how Shepherd had found a Christian curriculum she was planning on homeschooling to her two children.
“I’m telling you these things because taking Alyssa from this community would be like removing your best soldier on the front lines of the spiritual warfare.”
Next to speak was Daniel Muntt, Shepherd’s former pastor at Faith Outreach Church in Rochester. He said he now lives in?Iowa but that he has known Alyssa since she was little and that Shepherd and his daughter were close friends. Muntt said Shepherd has always had a positive affect on people in her school, on children and even on adults, adding he often used her character as an example on how people should live. Muntt also said he officiated Shepherd’s wedding to Neil and that “it would be a major loss to have Alyssa serve her sentence away from her family.”
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rachel Arndt then called Ingle to the stand.
Ingle spoke about the motherly way Alivia treated people and how her twins loved to be outdoors with their dad, Shane Ingle.
“Alyssa Shepherd killed his only biological children,” she said, adding that after they had the twins, Ingle got her tubes tied because their family was complete.
“They say ‘Oh, she’s never been in trouble,’” Ingle told the judge. “I myself have never been in trouble. My kids were everything to me.?i don’t even know a life without kids. We don’t know what to do.”
Ingle told Heller that she had her oldest child, Selena, when she was 17 years old. Selena would have been boarding the bus that morning but stayed home for a doctor’s appointment. Selena, 12, is now an only child, Ingle said.
Ingle said that instead of picking out Christmas presents, her family is now picking out grave blankets.
“I know you knew that was a bus. Everybody here is a driver, and when you see a squirrel or a deer, what do you do?,” Ingle asked Shepherd. “Being a Christian that you are and how much you love kids, you didn’t get down and pray for these kids that day.”
Ingle then spoke directly to Shepherd and said, “It sounds like you’re a good mom, but you know what, you can still talk to your kids. The 21-1/2 years isn’t s*** for what you did. I forever have to go to a f****** gravesite. You got your license back. What the f*** is wrong with our world?”
Ingle then spoke to?Heller and said, “I don’t hate Alyssa Shepherd. I hate what she did. This is Alivia’s second birthday in Heaven.”
Ingle then spoke to Shepherd’s family and told them if the roles were reversed and their children were killed, that they’d be asking for the maximum sentence too, and if they wouldn’t, then they’re not human.
Ingle asked Shepherd, “When you read your kids a bedtime story, and you hold them and hold their little bodies, do you ever think of what you did to mine?”
Alivia’s father, Michael Stahl, then took the stand and told Heller Alivia was his rock.
“You love your children, and you don’t love any child more than any other, but your relationships with your children are so different. Selena is my independent, very smart, good at sports child. Alivia, she was always a supporter, hands on with everybody. She cared about her brothers more than anyone in the world,” he said.
“My dad’s incarcerated. Has been my whole life, and now he’s dying,” Stahl told Shepherd. “I grew up going in and out of prison. I feel horrible for your children and your family, but not much for you.”
Stahl told Heller that Shepherd must be held accountable and asked the judge, “What is the point of having a maximum sentence on a crime if we don’t enforce it?”
Next, Shane Ingle, the father of the twins, took the stand and began crying.
“I don’t sleep very well at night. Mornings are especially hard. I looked forward to having kids. I saved baby clothes in a little box before I?had kids because I knew I would be a good dad. I contemplate suicide all the time, but the only thing I’m scared of is God won’t forgive me and I won’t see my kids again.”
Ingle said he goes to work every morning hoping he won’t get a phone call that his wife has done something to herself. He then told the judge that after Wednesday’s court proceedings, he’s checking himself into a mental health facility.
“Because I need help. Sometimes I can’t sleep. Sometimes all I do is sleep. If I want to hear my kids, I have to look at a video on my cellphone. If I want to visit my kids, I have to go to a cemetery.” Ingle said Shepherd and her children will be just fine if she goes to prison for 20 years.
Michael Schwab, the grandfather of the children, then took the stand and cried as he told the judge the victims are his grandchildren. Schwab said he doesn’t want to hear the phone ring because he never knows if it’s the call to tell him that his daughter didn’t feel like her life was worth living.
“Many nights are spent trying to convince them there’s something to live for,” he said. Schwab asked Heller to send a message that people can’t drive like Shepherd did that day and to honor his family and their request to hold her accountable.
Next, fourth-grade Mentone Elementary School teacher Sara Dye took the stand and told Heller she has never in her career had to sit, sobbing on the floor of her classroom with her students trying to explain death.
“Some asked when will they be back? Can I go visit her? Many of them had never been to a funeral, but now this tragedy is seared into their memory.”
Then Shepherd spoke, rapidly and through tears, and said that Oct. 300 will be the worst day of her life. “Worse than the four-day trial, worse than the conviction, worse than today. I can’t go back, and I am sorry. My heart breaks for each life.”
Shepherd then said she’s sorry if she comes off like she doesn’t care, because she does care, but “the only coping skill I have is make it through the day so I can melt at night.”
Prosecutor Mike Marrs said it’s about accountability.
“People want to say she’s a good person, she’s a young person, she’s a mother. We had a jury and they convicted her, that’s been done, that’s where we are and the law applies to all of us. We have a law like reckless homicide so people don’t do what she did.”
Marrs said he doesn’t know how to tell the family of the victims it’s going to be ok, because it’s not.
“Level 5 felonies, are you kidding me??You can go out and deal drugs and get 30 years in prison. You kill three kids, you get six years?,” Marrs said. “It’s a DOC case, judge.”
Marrs said he does believe Shepherd probably is remorseful behind closed doors, but that during the entire 14 months he’s been prosecuting the case, and throughout the trial, Shepherd has shown no emotion.
“Then she tells a counselor in her PSI (pre-sentence investigation report) there’s nothing she could have done to prevent the accident. She still doesn’t get it! Slow down!”
Marrs requested 14 years in IDOC, with 10 executed and 4 years on probation, along with the driver’s license suspension.
Shepherd’s attorney, Michael J. Tuszynski, told Heller his client is deeply remorseful and asked for an 8 year suspended sentence, adding, “I don’t think it’s the court’s job to send a message.”
After the sentencing, Heller said, “My heart truly goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Ingle and Mr. Stahl. There is no word or sentence I could impose that’s going to east that.”
A restitution hearing is set for 1:15 p.m. Feb. 14.
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