Swan Boat Club crash trial: Defense calls bartender who served Marshella Chidester before court ends for day

Marshella Chidester: Prosecution rests in Swan Boat Club crash

The prosecution in the has rested its case against the woman charged with crashing through Swan Boat Club in Monroe County, killing two young children.

MONROE COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Marshella Chidester, the suspect charged with killing two children after crashing into the Swan Boat Club last spring, returned to court Wednesday for the rest of the prosecution witness testimony before her attorney called his first witnesses.

Read updates on the day's testimony below.

Looking for Thursday's testimony? Find updates here.

Defense attorney Bill Colovos called a Monroe County Sheriff's Office lieutenant who previously testified to the stand before questioning the bartender who served Chidester the morning of the crash. Several additional defense witnesses are expected to testify Thursday morning before jury deliberations begin.

Swan Boat Club crash trial: Bartender testifies about serving Marshella Chidester

The defense began calling witnesses Wednesday afternoon during the Swan Boat Club crash trial. Attorney Bill Colovos questioned the bartender who served Marshella Chidester the morning of the crash before testimony wrapped up for the day. Watch the afternoon's proceedings in the video.

Tuesday was the first full day of testimony, with the prosecution calling more than a dozen witnesses to the stand. Those witnesses were in addition to the eight who testified after jury selection wrapped up Monday morning and the trial got underway that afternoon in Monroe County Circuit Court.

Witnesses Tuesday included Mariah Dodds, the mother of the two children killed in the April 20, 2024 crash. She delivered a tearful testimony that wrapped up with both Chidester and Colovos crying. Other people called to the stand included the deputy who was there when Chidester's blood was drawn at the hospital, and other detectives who responded to the scene after the deadly crash. The blood draw testimony was a big part of the day, as Colovos has argued that the blood was not properly handled.

The judge has ordered no streaming of trial proceedings. Video of the trial will be published at lunchtime and at the conclusion of court each day.

Read a day two recap and watch Tuesday's testimony here.

Featured

Swan Boat Club crash trial: Mother of children killed recalls learning what happened from hospital

article

Swan Boat Club crash trial: Mother of children killed recalls learning what happened from hospital

During the second day of testimony during Marshella Chidester's Swan Boat Club trial, the mother of the two children killed in the crash took the stand to discuss the moment she learned her children had died.

Day 3 testimony

1:39 p.m. - Case wraps up for the day

Court wrapped up for the day after Thornton's testimony. The trial resumes at 8 a.m. Thursday with more witness testimony.

1:26 p.m. - Verna's employee testifies

The next defense witness was Kelly Ann Thornton, the Verna's Tavern employee who served Chidester the day of the crash.

Thornton testified that Chidester arrived at the bar with her friends Brenda and Peter at 11 a.m. and ordered a cup of chili, a glass of wine, and water. She said that Chidester had nothing else to drink while at the bar.

"Absolutely positive that I did not serve her more than one glass of wine," she testified. "But there's two of us that work on a Saturday morning."

Thornton did not cash Chidester out that day, but said investigators who later came to the bar were given a receipt that showed the cup of chili, glass of wine, and water were the only items on her tab when she closed it at 12:15 p.m.

1:17 p.m. - Defense calls witness from Tuesday back to the stand

After lunch Wednesday, Colovos called Lt. Brian Quinn, who leads the Monroe County Sheriff's Office's Traffic Services Unit, to the stand. Quinn was called by the prosecution Tuesday to testify about analyzing the Event Data Recorder (EDR) from Chidester's vehicle.

According to Quinn's previous testimony, an EDR is a device that records a wealth of data during a crash, including whether drivers and passengers are wearing seat belts, every time the brake pedal is hit, percentage of throttle, speed, change in velocity, whether headlights are on or off, and more.

Quinn testified Tuesday that Chidester's EDR recorded both the crash into her neighbor's vehicle and the Swan Boat Club crash. He said that Chidester was going about 44 mph with her foot on the gas when she hit the building. According to the EDR data, her speed was steadily rising before impact.

According to testimony Wednesday, Quinn testified that at one point the EDR showed that both the gas and brake pedals were being pressed. When Colovos asked if Quinn had encountered this before, he said that sometimes people drive with both feet. Colovos followed up by asking Quinn if he'd ever seen both pedals pressed during a medical episode. Quinn said he wasn't qualified to speak on that.

11:27 a.m. - Court breaks for lunch

The trial will resume at 1:15 p.m. with defense witnesses.

11:13 a.m. - Defense brings forth directed verdict motion

After the prosecution rested, the jury was removed from the courtroom while Colovos brought forth a motion requesting that the jury be directed to give a not guilty verdict.

Colovos argued that the presence of trace acetone made the BAC results inaccurate.

"In my opinion, it produces inaccurate results," he said.

The prosecution argued that matter is one for an expert to address, not an attorney.

Colovos also claimed that there was no intent to kill anyone, so his client shouldn't be found guilty of murder. He has previously used this argument.

Judge Daniel White denied these motions, along with one Colovos made claiming that an attorney from the prosecutor's office had unauthorized contact with a magistrate,

10:46 a.m. - Prosecution rests

The prosecution rested their case after calling six witnesses Wednesday.

Court went into a brief break after.

10:16 a.m. - MSP toxicology lab supervisor called to stand

After questioning two employees of Michigan State Police's Lansing lab, the prosecution called Samantha Beauchamp, who supervises the toxicology lab.

She testified that she checked the sample for irregularities, but did not find any. Beauchamp then discussed the process she followed to test the sample for drugs before her data was reviewed by another analyst and a report was created.

Beauchamp said seizure and pain medication gabapentin, a central nervous system depressant, was found in Chidester's blood. According to her testimony, mixing alcohol and the medication could exacerbate the effects of both.

The prosecution asked Beauchamp to stay as a potential rebuttal witness.

9:31 a.m. - MSP forensic scientist takes stand

After the lab tech, MSP forensic scientist Tabitha Faust was called to the stand. Faust, an expert in toxicology, is the scientist who received the blood sample from tech Kathy Hoeppner and tested the sample.

Faust detailed the steps she took to test the blood for alcohol content, noting that the machine used for testing the sample is used every time she tests a blood sample.

Colovos questioned Faust about a trace amount of acetone found in Chidester's blood. Though the amount was too low to be reportable, Colovos asked if acetone could be present in blood that had fermented. Faust testified that she wasn't qualified to answer that question, but hadn't heard about acetone appearing in fermented blood.

Colovos has claimed that his client's blood alcohol content was so high - .18 - because the blood fermented. He is expected to call a witness to testify about this once the prosecution rests. The prosecution asked Faust to stay as a potential rebuttal witness.

8:53 a.m. - MSP forensic technician questioned

Following testimony from the person who drew Chidester's blood, the prosecution called Kathy Hoeppner, a forensic technician with Michigan State Police's Lanslng lab.

She testified that the blood was dropped off by a deputy. After she received the test kit from the deputy, she said she took the sample into the lab, opened it, and entered information from the kit into a lab system. After, she gave the sample to a forensic scientist.

According to her testimony, Hoeppner didn't notice anything unusual about the test kit, and she followed all the procedures required when handling a blood sample.

8:16 a.m. - Phlebotomist who conducted blood draw called to stand

Ro Mundy, the phlebotomist who drew Chidester's blood after the crash, took the strand next to testify about her qualifications, the process of a legal blood draw, and what happened that day.

Mundy said she was called to the emergency room of the hospital where she works in Toledo for a legal blood draw. The procedure includes going through a checklist and verifying the person's identity before setting up to draw blood with a Michigan State Police kit provided to the phlebotomist.

Mundy testified that she followed the checklist for taking the blood sample. She verified that an alcohol prep pad was not used during the blood draw. She also testified that she inverted the tube with the blood to mix a preservative. This is a key piece of testimony because Colovos said the blood was not handled properly and the preservative was not mixed in with the blood.

During cross-examination, Colovos argued that the paperwork Mundy filled out did not include the doctor that she was working under during the blood draw. When the prosecution questioned her during redirect, she was asked if she had ever worked without the authority of a physician. She said no, adding that she didn't fill out that section because she didn't know which doctor was running the emergency room since she doesn't regularly work in the ER.

8:11 a.m. - Deputy testifies about taking the blood sample to the lab

Now-retired Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Jon Cregar testified about transporting Chidester's blood sample to a state police lab in Lansing.

Cregar said the sample was in his possession the entire time, until he handed it off to someone at the lab.

8:06 a.m. - Young victim takes stand

The first witness called to the stand was 14-year-old Edward Smothers, who suffered a broken femur in the crash.

Smothers testified that he didn't remember much before the crash.

"After that (the crash), I just stopped thinking and started to panic," he said.

2 kids killed in boat club crash

The backstory:

Two children, 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and 4-year-old Zayn Phillips, were killed after a vehicle barreled through the Swan Boat Club during a birthday party on April 20, 2024.

According to authorities, Chidester, 67, had a BAC of .18 when she drove her vehicle into the Berlin Township club.

Chidester was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death, and four counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

After the crash, Chidester told deputies that she didn't remember it happening. When asked how she was feeling on a scale of 0-10, with zero being sober and 10 being passed out drunk, Chidester responded that she was at seven. She was also heard telling the deputy that she "wouldn't want to drive," when asked if she felt she was OK to drive.

A deputy who testified during her preliminary exam said that Chidester failed several field sobriety tests, couldn't maintain her balance, had watery, bloodshot eyes, and smelled like alcohol.

Chidester told authorities that she had drunk one glass of wine at a nearby bar early in the day, a fact Colovos said was confirmed during a search at that bar.

She also told the deputy that she had a seizure the month before the crash and was hospitalized for several days.

Marshella Chidester's defense

What they're saying:

Colovos has maintained that the crash was a result of Chidester's medical condition, not alcohol. He has also argued that her blood sample was not properly handled and thus should not be admitted as evidence.

"It's based upon that they had faulty, when they took the blood, when they were supposed to preserve the blood, when they transported the blood, and when the blood was tested, all of it was faulty," he said.

According to Colovos, the blood was allegedly not properly preserved and stored, which can cause it to ferment.

"It wasn't preserved properly by statute, by law," he said. "We really wish it would have been done right because then it would have showed what her real blood alcohol level was."

Colovos said the basis for his request comes from evidence presented during Chidester's preliminary examination last year. According to Colovos, an officer who handled the blood sample testified that he did not shake it after adding a preservative.

"He was supposed to shake it because that preservative is what keeps it from being instead of a .02 turns into a .18. if the preservative is not shaken," Colovos said in court Friday.

Colovos filed a motion requesting not to have the BAC results presented during trial.

The other side:

The prosecution argued that any concerns about BAC should be argued at trial. Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Daniel White agreed.

After the motion to suppress the BAC was denied, Colovos requested that the issue be addressed before jurors are in the courtroom. White declined this request.

The BAC is expected to be a big part of the trial, with Colovos previously saying that he will have an expert testify about how the blood sample was handled.