Woman's early release in deadly school bus crash denied

FILE – This undated file photo provide by the Indiana State Police shows Alyssa Shepherd. Jury selection is underway in the trial of Shepard, an Indiana woman accused of killing three children by striking them with a pickup truck as they crossed a two-lane state highway to board a school bus. Shepherd faces three counts of reckless homicide and other charges in the Oct. 30, 2018, crash in Rochester, Ind., about 100 miles north of Indianapolis. (Indiana State Police via AP)

Posted: Nov 29, 2021 / 08:10 PM CST

Updated: Nov 29, 2021 / 08:10 PM CST

ROCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — A judge has blocked the early prison release of a woman convicted in a 2018 crash that killed three siblings who were crossing a rural northern Indiana highway to board a school bus.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Greg Heller on Monday denied Alyssa Shepherd’s placement into a community transition program as early as next month after prosecutors and members of the victims’ families opposed the transition.

Shepherd was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 after being convicted on three counts of reckless homicide in connection to the crash that killed 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and the girl’s 6-year-old twin half brothers, Xzavier and Mason Ingle.