At the request of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, a city Court of Common Pleas judge has reinstated third-degree murder charges against a woman who allegedly was drunk when she struck and killed three people, including two Pennsylvania State Police troopers, on I-95.
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Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom reinstated the charges after Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons dropped them at a June preliminary hearing for Jayana Tanae Webb, 21, of Eagleville in Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County, on Wednesday in the city. Simmons said during the June hearing that there was a lack of evidence for the serious charges.
Webb remains charged with manslaughter of a law enforcement officer in the second degree, homicide by vehicle while DUI, homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless endangerment.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told 6abc the third-degree murder charges were “always appropriate for this defendant, whose actions we allege led to the violent deaths” of the troopers and the pedestrian they were assisting.
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Troopers Martin F. Mack III, 33, of Bristol Borough, and Branden T. Sisca, 29, of Montgomery County, were killed when Webb hit a state police patrol SUV on I-95 southbound by the stadium complex in Philadelphia as they secured the pedestrian – Reyes Rivera Oliveras, 28, of Allentown – who was on the highway just before 1 a.m. on March 21.
The force of the crash threw the victims across the highway, state police said.
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The troopers and Oliveras were killed.
Authorities have previously testified in court that Webb was tweeting at the time of the crash, she had marijuana in her system, she had been pulled over by the troopers for speeding minutes earlier but was released due to a call for a person on the road, and her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit at the time.
Krasner’s prosecutors had asked the judge to revoke Webb’s bail, but the judge denied that. Webb will remain in custody on 10 percent of $600,000 bail.
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During Wednesday hearing, the wives of the two troopers were asked to leave the courtroom during the hearing by the judge due to an interruption, but they told KYW Newsradio they were just grabbing their masks.
Mack and Sisca spent their entire state police careers assigned to the patrol section of Troop K in Philadelphia.
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The fallen lawmen were remembered at large funeral services following their deaths. Mack’s funeral mass happened in Tullytown Borough.
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