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Indiana high court won’t hear appeal of conviction from fatal school bus crash

ROCHESTER, Ind. (WISH) — The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled it will not hear an appeal from the woman convicted of plowing her pickup into four children, killing three of them, as they crossed a two-lane highway to board their school bus.

A Fulton County jury in October 2019 found Alyssa Shepherd, 24, guilty of reckless homicide and criminal recklessness in the Oct. 30, 2018, crash that killed 6-year-old twin brothers Xzavier and Mason Ingle, and their 9-year-old sister, Alivia Stahl. Maverik Lowe, 11, was critically injured. She was sentenced to four years in prison in December 2019, and she appealed the case in May.

In her appeal, Shepherd had wanted the court to dismiss her conviction and order a new trial.

At the time of her arrest, Shepherd told authorities she didn’t realize that she was approaching a stopped school bus, despite the activated stop arm and flashing lights. During her trial, Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marrs said the bus stop had been in place for 50 years without a child being killed, The Associated Press reported.

The crash led to statewide changes, prompting the legislature to increase penalties for drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses.

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