Pennsylvania woman sentenced in DUI crash that killed 2 troopers and a pedestrian
PHILADELPHIA — A woman has been sentenced to decades in prison after pleading guilty to driving under the influence and then striking and killing two state troopers and a pedestrian on a Philadelphia highway last year.
Jayana Webb, 23, of Eagleville, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Philadelphia courtroom to three counts each of third-degree murder and manslaughter by vehicle while driving under the influence in the early morning crash in March 2022. She was sentenced to 27 1/2 to 60 years in prison.
District Attorney Larry Krasner called it “a just resolution to one of the most shocking incidents of vehicular violence in recent history.”
Police said Troopers Martin Mack III and Branden Sisca were attempting to pull a pedestrian to safety from the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 near the sports stadiums in south Philadelphia when a vehicle “traveling at a high rate of speed” struck all three. The troopers and the pedestrian, identified as 28-year-old Reyes Rivera Oliveras of Allentown, died at the scene.
Attorney Michael Walker told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Webb, who is seven months pregnant, will be allowed to remain out of custody until she gives birth in February and bond with the child sometime afterward before reporting to jail. .
Walker said his client expressed his deep “sadness” and apologized to the victims’ families in court.
“She had hoped that at some point in their lives they would be able to forgive her,” he said. “She will never forgive herself. She suffers enormously from what she has done and realizes that she has been punished and has ruined a large part of her life,” Walker said.
Previous court hearings focused on Webb’s blood alcohol level and her social media activity, including a post earlier in the morning saying she had been stopped “driving 110 in an 50mph zone. Authorities said the troopers who stopped her were abruptly diverted south to help Oliveras, who was apparently trying to cross the highway. As they tried to get him off the road, Webb tried to pass the parked state police SUV at a high rate of speed, hitting all three, authorities said.
Her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit and active ingredients of marijuana were also found, prosecutors said.
Mack, 33, enlisted in November 2014 and had been assigned to the Philadelphia barracks since 2015. Sisca, 29, enrolled last February and graduated in August. Col. Robert Evanchick, the state police commissioner, said both “had bright careers ahead of them” before “their lives were senselessly cut short.”