A motorist who allegedly cause a five-vehicle Thanksgiving Day crash that killed her and two other people had recently been freed from the latest in a series of alcohol-related arrests and had a history of driving while intoxicated, authorities said.
Shelley Rose, 48, was driving a Dodge Caravan the wrong way on the southbound lanes of Interstate 59 near Lumberton, Miss., before colliding with two vehicles, witnesses said. The wreck killed Rose, Jada Bright, 23, of Slidell, La., and 45-year-old Alabama resident Evens Vincent, the Clarion Ledger of Jackson, Miss., reported.
A Honda CRV also crashed into a sedan and rolled over into the wood line. The driver and two passengers inside suffered minor injuries, the report said.
Just three days earlier, Rose was arrested for her fourth alleged DUI offense after the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department received calls from witnesses about an erratic driver in a Dodge Caravan, Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said.
Rose, 48, was released on $10,000 bond eight hours later.
Then on Nov. 21, she was arrested nearly 70 miles away by Ellisville police on suspicion of public drunkenness and released without bail later that night.
A fourth DUI offense in Mississippi is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But the state's court system’s slow pace and problems getting information from jurisdictions where previous DUI offenses have occurred hamper prosecutions of repeat offenders, said Lauderdale County Sheriff Billie Sollie.