ROCHESTER — Alyssa Shepherd, the driver involved in an accident that left three children dead last year, testified on her own behalf Friday, Oct. 18.

The 25-year-old Rochester woman is facing five charges after the Toyota Tacoma she was driving on Oct. 30, 2018, struck four children, killing three after she drove through a bus stop where children were attempting to board a bus along SR 25 north of Rochester.

Six-year-old twins Xzavier and Mason Ingle; and their sister, nine-year-old Alivia Stahl, died at the scene. Twelve-year-old Maverik Lowe was severely injured after being struck by Shepherd’s vehicle.

Jury deliberations began by mid-afternoon Friday, Oct. 18, after final arguments were heard.

In her testimony, Shepherd said her morning routine for Oct. 30, 2018, was different compared to other days. She said she took her husband, Neil, to work that day.

Shepherd told jurors that after she dropped off her husband at work in Talma, she took SR 25 to go to Rochester. She also said she had never driven from Talma to Rochester in the dark. Defense Attorney Michael Tuszynski asked Shepherd what she saw while traveling to Rochester.

“I saw a big vehicle and I didn’t know what it was,” said Shepherd. “I’m used to seeing larger semis in the country and that’s what I thought it was.”

Tuszynski asked if she could tell what the vehicle was as she got closer.

“As I approached it, I still didn’t know what it was until I saw kids right in front of me,” said Shepherd, becoming emotional. “I don’t remember how I was steering my vehicle but I remember putting on the brake.”

Shepherd said she attempted to call 911 after the accident but couldn’t get through to a dispatcher. She then called a friend who worked as a Fulton County 911 dispatcher. “She told me to get out of my car and assess the situation,” Shepherd said. “I did that, but saw a man with an intimidating face approaching me and got back in my vehicle.”

Shepherd said she wasn’t aware of the kids’ conditions when she initially left her vehicle.

“At the accident, I remember just screaming and crying,” said Shepherd. “But when I went to the hospital, it was almost like an out-of-body experience.”

She also described Indiana State Police Detective Michelle Jumper as “very calming and motherly.” Jumper was the officer who interviewed Shepherd at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department after the accident occurred.

Tuszynski asked Shepherd why she didn’t ask about the kids’ condition during her interview with Jumper.

“My first thought was to just cooperate and answer questions she had,” said Shepherd. “I didn’t think she was at the scene to know that information.”

She also said she remembered seeing a curve sign, but not a “Watch for Stopped School Bus” sign prior to the accident.

During the state’s questioning, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rachel Arndt asked Shepherd about her knowledge of a school bus’s physical characteristics and what yellow blinking lights and red blinking lights signify.

“The yellow lights mean to be aware of an object as you’re approaching it,” said Shepherd. “The red lights, it depends on where it’s at on the vehicle.”

Shepherd also told Arndt that it appeared that the school bus was approaching her and that she noticed blinking red lights, but did not see a stop arm extended from the bus with red blinking lights.

Lyle Butt, the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation bus garage transportation director, was the next witness to take the stand.

During questioning, the defense attorney asked Butt if there had been any accidents at that bus stop prior to the accident. Butt recalled a school bus rear-end accident that occurred in 2015, but said the driver of the vehicle was distracted by a cellphone.

“In 2017, we did go into the Meiser Mobile Home Park to pick up a handicapped child in the park,” said Butt. “But even at that time, the owner of the park didn’t want the buses going in there to pick up kids. We also thought there was a greater risk to pick them up in the trailer park due to poor lighting in the area.”

He said he believed the routine for pick-up and drop-off at the mobile home park changed within a week after the accident.

During cross-examination, the state asked Butt how long a bus stop has been made at the trailer park. He approximated that a bus has stopped there for 50 years and that there have only been two accidents at the stop in that time.

TVSC Superintendent Blaine Conley also testified. He was also asked if there had been any accidents at the bus stop prior to Oct. 30, 2018. “There was a situation with a bread truck where it was not sure if it was in violation of the bus’s stop arm,” said Conley. “The company for that bread truck was contacted and the situation was addressed.”

He also mentioned the same school bus rear-end accident that Butt discussed in his testimony.

Conley did say he received a complaint from Brittany Ingle, the victims’ mother in this case, prior to the accident. He could not recall which incident, in particular, the complaint was related to.

Brittany Thompson, the 911 dispatcher and friend Shepherd contacted shortly after the accident, was the next witness to testify. Thompson said she has known Shepherd for about four years through church.

“Initially, all I could hear from her call that day was screaming,” said Thompson. “They were types of screams that I had never heard before.”

Thompson said it took her several minutes to figure out what Shepherd said had occurred.

“Based on my experiences taking 911 calls, I could tell she was going in and out of shock,” said Thompson. “I wasn’t on duty at the time, but I grabbed my husband’s cell phone to make a call to make sure dispatch was clear on the situation.”

Thompson said she did not tell Shepherd that there were fatalities in the accident due to Shepherd being extremely emotional.

Neil Shepherd, Shepherd’s husband, was also called to testify. He described Oct. 30, 2018, as an extremely dark morning. After being dropped off at work by Alyssa, Neil said he received a phone call from her within five minutes.

“She was very hysterical in the phone call and I assumed she was in an accident,” said Neil. “At the time, she wasn’t able to relay much info to me.”

Neil then asked a co-worker to drive him out onto SR 25 because he believed Alyssa had been in an accident.

“I remember running toward the vehicle where Alyssa was at,” said Neil. “She kept repeating over and over ‘It’s not going to be okay’ and ‘Why wasn’t there a sign?'”

With the help of his co-worker, Neil took Alyssa’s younger brother, as well as their two children, out of the vehicle in order to take them home.

During cross-examination, the state asked Neil what he thought of Alyssa as a driver.

“She’s had zero traffic offenses and no tickets,” said Neil.

To conclude defense’s argument, Rodney Rudd, a police officer with the Argos Police Department, was called to testify. At 8:30 p.m. Nov. 14, 2018, Rudd was on SR 110 when he recreated a video of a tractor. He said that he and Jason Hudkins, Alyssa Shepherd’s stepfather, had asked him about how the lighting on a vehicle could potentially be misconstrued. Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs objected to the video being admitted as evidence, saying that it “might as well be a UFO video,” but the video was allowed to be entered as evidence.

Dr. Dustin Petersen, a trauma surgeon at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, was the state’s final witness called to the stand. Petersen was the surgeon who treated Maverik Lowe after he was flown by medical helicopter to Fort Wayne for injuries he sustained in the crash.

In his testimony, Petersen elaborated on the extent of Lowe’s injuries, including a spleen injury, neck fracture, knee dislocation, and two rib fractures. Lowe has had 21 surgeries since the accident.

In closing statements, Marrs focused his argument on accountability for actions.

“The defendant didn’t wake up intending to kill children,” said Marrs. “Intent has nothing to do with this. But it’s 100 percent about her reckless behavior and actions. This isn’t reckless. This is extremely reckless. It was so reckless that the box truck driver behind the school bus thought it was a drunk driver. We’ve also heard from Maggie Harding (the driver behind Alyssa Shepherd’s vehicle) and she saw that school bus immediately. Alyssa totaled her truck, almost like she hit a vehicle head-on. And honestly? I wish we weren’t here. This whole incident makes me sick.”

Tuszynski focused his closing argument on the incident being merely an unfortunate accident.

“The state is attempting to criminalize something that is an accident,” said Tuszynski. “The school corporation had prior complaints about this bus stop in the past, and any thought to have these kids cross the highway at all was a very poor choice. The running lights of that box truck and the school bus all looked like one vehicle. There’s no dispute as to what happened. The state’s case is ‘I know it’s a bus. I don’t care.’ Alyssa misjudged the situation she was in. And it took a horrific event like this to make the school, dozens of schools, change their methods on how they pick up and drop off kids.”

Marrs then made a rebuttal argument on behalf of the state.

“If she could see the reflective tape from that truck, how could she not see the bus?” asked Marrs. “She knew she was coming up to something. Nobody else had trouble seeing it. The thing that makes me sick is that we shouldn’t even be here. These kids didn’t get Halloween or Christmas last year. And they aren’t getting it this year. Or the next. I feel bad for the defendant, but not as bad as I do for the families whose kids aren’t here anymore.”

Jurors began deliberating at about 3:30 p.m. Friday.