State’s attorney’s office won’t appeal appellate court ruling to dismiss aggravated DUI count against McBride

January 3, 2023 | By David Adam, MRN Editor

Natasha McBride | Photo courtesy of Adams County Jail

QUINCY — The Adams County State’s Attorney’s office will not file an appeal of last month’s Fourth District Appellate Court’s ruling, which upheld Judge Amy Lannerd’s ruling to dismiss a charge of aggravated driving under the influence by Natasha McBride in an Aug. 14, 2020, crash that killed four people.

A status hearing on McBride’s case was held Tuesday morning before Judge Robert Adrian in Adams County Circuit Court. When Adrian asked public defender Todd Nelson how he wanted to proceed, assistant state’s attorney Todd Jones spoke up.

“Since we received a ruling on the appeal that the people filed, and the short version is that we lost, we will not be seeking to appeal that ruling any further,” Jones told Adrian.

Nelson then told Adrian he thought it was appropriate to wait for the mandate from the appellate court before proceeding. Adrian then set a status hearing on the case for Jan. 17.

McBride allegedly ran a traffic light at Fourth and Broadway while speeding and ran into a vehicle which led to the deaths of Jenniffer Hendricks, 54, of Rushville, and Dakota Corrick, 6, Archer Corrick, 4, and Ransom Corrick, 21 months. The Corrick boys were Hendricks’ grandchildren and lived in Kirksville, Mo.

The state charged McBride on Aug. 17, 2020, with four counts of reckless homicide, four counts of driving on a revoked license and four courts of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. The state charged McBride on Aug. 20, 2020, in an indictment with those same offenses, plus four counts of first-degree murder.

The state moved on Dec. 29, 2021 for an extension of the discovery deadline. Before the court heard that motion, the state charged McBride on Jan. 11, 2022, with aggravated DUI in a 17^th count, alleging McBride operated her vehicle “while under the influence of tetrahydrocannabinol” and two or more people died in the collision.

Nelson then moved on March 15 to dismiss the 17^th count on speedy-trial grounds, and Lannerd granted the motion to dismiss the 17^th count on April 1. The Fourth District Appellate Court issued its ruling on Dec. 6.

McBride remains in the Adams County Jail on $5 million bond.