Chicago: A 26-year-old woman charged with killing an Indian MBA student and three others by crashing her car into spectators watching a parade in the US state of Oklahoma in 2015 has been sentenced to life in prison after accepting a plea deal.
Adacia Chambers was sentenced in Payne County District Court yesterday after pleading no contest to four counts of second-degree murder and 39 counts of assault and battery, CBS News reported.
Those killed in the October 24 car crash included Nikita Nakal, a 23-year-old MBA student from Mumbai at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, a married couple, Bonnie Jean Stone and Marvin Lyle Stone, both 65, and 2-year-old Nash Lucas.
Among the injured were nine children 10 years old or younger.
Chambers was due to stand trial on Tuesday and prosecutors had estimated it could have lasted a month due to the extensive list of potential witnesses, including victims, first-responders and detectives.
Chambers was apologetic to victims of the crash. "If only I could change the past. My prayers are always with the victims," Chambers said in court. "I was suffering from psychosis that day."
Prosecutors alleged that Chambers purposely steered her car around a police barricade and sped up before she plowed into the crowd watching the parade before Oklahoma State's game against the University of Kansas.
Chambers' attorneys had argued in pretrial hearings that she had a mental illness and was experiencing a psychiatric episode at the time of the crash.
Her father said she received psychiatric treatment at an in-patient facility several years ago. But a judge ruled that Chambers was competent to stand trial and refused a defense request to move the trial to another jurisdiction.
