Gets Early Release from Prison After Completing Bible Study Course
An Indiana woman who struck and killed three young siblings as they crossed a road to board their school bus was released from prison early this week. Alyssa Shepherd, 27, was released from the Rockville Correctional Facility on Wednesday after serving just over two years of her four-year sentence, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Shepherd in the early morning hours of Oct. 30, 2018 failed to stop for a school bus on Indiana 25 next to the Meiser Mobile Home Park despite the bus idling with its stop-arm and lights fully activated, the South Bend Tribune reported. As she passed the stationary bus, Shepherd struck and killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl, as well as her 6-year-old twin brothers, Xzavier Ingle and Mason Ingle. The collision also left a fourth child, Maverik Lowe, severely injured. Lowe was not related to the other three children.
Alyssa Shepherd told investigators that she “saw something in the road, but did not realize it was a bus until it was too late,” according to the South Bend Tribune.
She now faces about three years of home detention with a GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet, followed by three years of probation, he said.
Based on Indiana’s time served credit rules, Shepherd was slated to be incarcerated until September 2022, but an additional six months of her sentence were shaved off when she completed a prison Bible study course.
Shepherd was eligible to be released into a community transition program in December, but a judge ruled against that move in November after prosecutors and members of the victims’ families opposed it.
Shepherd will be allowed to work at a coffee shop owned by her parents.
