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Marshella Chidester was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison on May 15, 2025, for driving her SUV into a children's birthday party at the Swan Boat Club in Berlin Township, Michigan, killing two siblings. On March 6, 2025, after less than two hours of deliberation, a jury found her guilty of all nine counts: two of second-degree murder, two of operating while intoxicated causing death and five of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

The crash happened on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at about 3 p.m., while about 70 people attended the party. The SUV went through a wall and stopped about 25 feet inside the building. Security video showed it traveling 44 mph. Alanah Phillips, 8, and Zayn Phillips, 4, were killed. About 15 other people were injured, including the children's mother and a brother. Chidester, 66 at the time, lived nearby in Newport, Monroe County, Michigan. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office said she had been at a local bar, reported as Verna's Tavern, before the crash.

A sheriff's sergeant among the first at the scene arrested her. On body camera video, Chidester told deputies she had passed out and has seizures. She said she had been drinking "a little bit," with her last drink about 30 minutes earlier. Asked to rate herself from 0, sober, to 10, passed out drunk, she said seven. Asked whether she was all right to drive, she said, "I wouldn't want to drive." A deputy testified at her preliminary examination that her blood alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice Michigan's 0.08 limit.

A sheriff's office investigator interviewed Chidester on the afternoon of April 21, 2024, the day after the crash, reading her Miranda rights from a form she signed. She said she met friends for lunch and did not remember the crash. The investigator told her one glass of wine could not account for her blood alcohol level and repeatedly said she was not being truthful about how much she drank. She answered that she did not recall and was not lying. She was arraigned on April 23, 2024, with bond set at $1.5 million. At the arraignment, the defense said she had a history of seizures; the prosecution said there was no evidence of a seizure. She was bound over for trial on all charges after a preliminary examination and pleaded not guilty.

Trial began March 3, 2025, in Monroe County Circuit Court. A waitress called by the defense testified that the bill for Chidester's late-morning visit showed one glass of wine and a water. Prosecutors showed video of her holding a wine bottle that morning and a nearly empty glass about an hour later. Witnesses testified that she bought alcohol that morning and that matching bottles were found in her trash. A state police toxicology supervisor testified that gabapentin in her system and alcohol could worsen each other's effects. The defense argued that the blood test kit was not refrigerated, so the sample fermented and read high, and that a medical problem, not alcohol, caused the crash.

Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Daniel White imposed the sentence with credit for 76 days. State corrections records list 25 to 50 years on each murder count, 7 to 15 years on each count of causing death and 2 to 5 years on each injury count. The judge said, "I believe the jury got it right," and that the crash "wasn't just an accident, it was a crime." Chidester told the court, "I am so very sorry." Her attorney said at sentencing that her father founded the club, she was a former commodore and she held her wedding reception there.

After the verdict, her trial attorney said he expected an appeal; she later hired new counsel. No appeal ruling has been reported. As of November 1, 2026, Michigan Department of Corrections records list her at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, with an earliest release date of February 27, 2050 and a discharge date of February 27, 2075.