A Petersburg woman pleaded guilty Friday to killing a Glen Allen woman and her 1-year-old grandson and severely injuring two other family members in a wrong-way, drunken driving crash earlier this year during a torrential downpour on Interstate 95 in Chesterfield County.
Danielle Nicole McDaniel, 32, pleaded guilty in Chesterfield Circuit Court to two counts of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol, two counts of causing permanent injuries while impaired, and DUI-second offense within 10 years.
In entering the pleas, McDaniel, who escaped injury in the head-on crash while driving south in the northbound lanes of I-95 near the Woods Edge Road exit, took responsibility for killing Reinee Thomas, 43, and Josiah Thomas, who was six weeks shy of his 2nd birthday. Both were killed instantly on March 27.
McDaniel also acknowledged severely injuring Thomas’ adult daughter, La’Shawnda T. Newbill, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Josiah’s mother, Gianna I. MacInnes-Olbash, who was in a rear seat. MacInnes-Olbash’s 4-month-old daughter escaped with minor injuries.
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McDaniel faces up to 41 years in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 27.
According to a summary of evidence presented by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Ken Chitty, Thomas was driving her family home from a church function near Petersburg about 11:30 p.m. when their Nissan Altima was struck head-on by a Jeep Liberty driven by McDaniel. McDaniel’s vehicle then struck a Lexus GS 350.
When state troopers arrived at the crash site about a half-mile south of Woods Edge Road just after midnight, they found the front end of the family’s Altima pushed inward toward the driver’s side, with both driver’s side doors ripped off. Thomas and her grandson already had died of blunt-force trauma.
Although McDaniel’s Jeep sustained heavy damage, troopers found her walking around uninjured except for a cut to her lower lip. She told police said had been traveling southbound to her home in Petersburg from a friend’s house in Chester when “she just hit something.”
“Officers observed that she was stumbling while walking and when she would stand, she would be swaying from side to side,” the prosecutor said. Troopers also detected a strong odor of alcohol, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. She could not tell officers which road she was on.
McDaniel told officers she had a beer and a glass of wine about two hours before the crash, but she believed the current time was about 9 p.m., which was off by three hours.
After being taken to a hospital, McDaniel agreed to provide a sample of her blood for testing. It later was determined that her blood-alcohol level was 0.205, or about or about 2½ times over the presumptive legal intoxication level for driving.
The prosecutor noted that McDaniel was previously convicted of DUI in Henrico County in September 2012.
In an interview at the hospital, Newbill told a trooper that Thomas, her mother, was driving only about 50 mph in the right lane due to the heavy rain. Moments before the crash, Newbill told her mother to buckle her seat belt, she said. But before her mother could do so, Newbill saw the headlights coming toward them.
Newbill “stated her mother hit the brakes and used her right arm to hold her back, protecting her, just before being struck by the oncoming vehicle,” Chitty said. Newbill’s injuries included a severe fracture of her right wrist that required surgery to implant screws and a plate.
MacInnes-Olbash suffered a broken right arm, a broken right rib and injuries to her spleen. Her arm fracture required a surgical implant of screws and a plate.
In remarks to the judge, defense attorney John Rockecharlie said McDaniel, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, had been celebrating her promotion to full-time status as a licensed practical nurse, which included a pay raise and eligibility for health insurance for her and her family.
“She was out celebrating that fact in an area of Chesterfield she was unfamiliar with,” Rockecharlie said.
Rockecharlie said McDaniel received driving instructions on how to get home from friends with whom she had been celebrating. They advised her to take Ruffin Mill Road to the I-95 interchange, and then turn right at the first stop light at the intersection of Ruffin Mill and Woods Edge roads. She would see a sign there that said I-95 southbound.
But the stop light at that intersection apparently was not operating due to the storm, the attorney said.
Consequently, McDaniel drove through the intersection; the first stop light she saw was the one that allows drivers getting off northbound I-95 to turn left onto Ruffin Mill Road, Rockecharlie said.
“She stopped at the stop light and turned right, like her directions told her to, but that was actually onto [the I-95] exit ramp,” Rockecharlie said. “So she ended up coming around and getting onto 95, and she thought she was heading southbound when actuality she was in the northbound travel lanes.”
She drove roughly 300-500 yards in the wrong direction before slamming into Thomas’ car. Police determined she was traveling 57 mph and never activated her brakes.
Rockecharlie noted that one of the first officers to arrive at the crash scene remarked on the “crazy rain” that was falling that night. The officer said “it was raining so hard that you could barely see beyond the hood of your car.”