ANCHORAGE — Lori Phillips, the repeat driving-under-the-influence offender accused of killing a man and critically injuring his fiancee in a Seward Highway wreck in November, will remain jailed despite her mother's and brother's offer to stand as third-party custodians, a judge ruled at a bail hearing Wednesday.
Phillips is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, driving under the influence, reckless driving and driving on a revoked license in connection with the Nov. 5 head-on collision at Potter Marsh that killed Louis Clement, 23, and put his child's mother, 29-year-old Joyua Stovall, in the hospital, where she remains.
Members of all involved families appeared in court Wednesday to plead their cases, including Stovall, who delivered remarks to state Superior Court Judge Philip Volland over the telephone from her hospital bed.
Stovall, offering her first public remarks since the wreck, said at the hearing it would be unsafe and "ridiculous" to let Phillips out, where she could get behind the wheel again.
"The damage that was done -- what I have to go through, and not being able to walk or see my children, or be able to go home and be a mother to them," Stovall said. "She is a hazard. She killed my child's father in the accident. Who's to say she's not going to slip up and do it again?"
Phillips remains jailed at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center with bail set at $110,000 and a third-party requirement. If she were released, any third party would be required to keep eyes or ears on Phillips at all times, something her mother, Elizabeth Jenkins, 79, and her brother, Robert L. Phillips, both of Fairbanks, said at the hearing they could do.
Assistant District Attorney Regan Williams opposed approval of the custodians, noting that in Phillips' two most recent DUIs, witnesses tried to physically stop her from driving and were unable to.
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