Woman who plowed car into crowd released on Sh100M bail

An Oklahoma judge on Monday set bond at $1 million for a woman suspected of barreling her car into a crowd at a weekend homecoming rally for Oklahoma State University, killing three adults and a toddler, and injuring nearly 50 others.

Adacia Chambers, 25, is suspected of having been driving while intoxicated when she rammed her Hyundai Elantra at high speed into a crowd watching Saturday’s parade in Stillwater, police said.

Chambers, who is in jail, appeared by video link with Payne County District Court in her first court proceeding for the case. She has been charged with four counts of second-degree murder, which can bring from 10 years to life in prison for each count. There was no indication whether she will post bond.

She did not enter a plea and another hearing was set for Nov. 13. Prosecutors said one of the injured victims was near death.

Prosecutors said Chambers is a direct threat to the community, saying she committed “an act of depraved murder.”

Her lawyer, Tony Coleman, said she has been in a “zombie-like” state, unable to give normal answers to questions about what happened when she was behind the wheel.

“I mentioned to her again today that people died and I got no response. The look in her face – there’s a very blank, lifeless look in her face,” Coleman told reporters after the hearing.

Chambers has twice sought help at mental hospitals, Coleman told the court, and the judge accepted a defense request for a psychiatric evaluation.

Four dozen people were also injured, five of them critically, in the incident that sent shockwaves through the college town about 70 miles (115 km) west of Tulsa. The crash was captured on cellphone video and seen globally.

Before the hearing, the suspect’s father, Floyd Chambers, told a news conference he did not have answers for what happened, adding he had sought help for his daughter.

Killed on the scene were a married couple, Bonnie and Marvin Stone, both 65 and of Stillwater, as well as Nikita Nakal, 23, of Mumbai, India. Two-year-old Nash Lucas, of Weatherford, Oklahoma, died later at a hospital, police said.