By Skylar Smith
Published: October 26, 2009
Categorized in | Campus News, Local News
By Skylar Smith
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Two San Bernardino women were killed Monday when an alleged drunk driver crashed into their Chevy Silverado head-on while driving west in the eastbound lane of the 91 freeway.
Jessica Shekell, 22, has been released on bond as of 6:04 p.m. Dec. 15, 2009. Her pre-trail hearing is set for Feb. 26, 2010. Photo courtesy of the Orange County District Attorney's Office
The driver of the Silverado, Sally Miguel, 44, was driving east bound in the FasTrak Express lane when Jessica Shekell, 21, a Fullerton resident and Cal State Fullerton freshman transfer majoring in sociology, collided head-on with her 2003 Toyota Tundra. Shekell was sent to UCI Medical Center.
Also riding in the Silverado was Patricia Miguel, 30, sister to Sally Miguel, who sat in the passenger seat while nieces Sara Miguel, 11, and Mary Miguel, 15 sat in the backseats. Sally Miguel died on the scene and Patricia died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
The two nieces, Sara who received major injuries, and Mary who received moderate injuries, are currently being held at separate hospitals, one of them being UCI Medical Center.
John Murray, head of media relations at UCI Medical Center, said Shekell is currently in “fair condition” and that one of the Miguel girls is also at the hospital, however because they are both juveniles he cannot say which girl.
The accident occurred at 3:02 a.m. right after a report came in to the California Highway Patrol about a driver going the wrong way at 2:55 a.m. “We had a unit right in that area,” said Officer Denise Quesada. “Our units were there literally almost as the collision occurred.”
“The 911 caller called it in at Imperial Highway,” Quesada said, she added that the officer arrived on the freeway at Kramer Avenue. “Our units were coming to the area when, I don’t know if he actually witnessed or heard it or came upon the aftermath, but he looked over the radio at 3:02 and there was a head-on collision.”
Shekell, who may have had alcohol in her system, was driving west on the eastbound side of the 91 freeway when she collided with Miguel’s truck around Lakeview Ave. According to the California Highway Patrol, the Miguel family was driving back from a night at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park to their home in San Bernardino.
“The passengers of the (Silverado) were not wearing seat belts so therefore they sustained major injuries, but everyone stayed within the vehicle. I don’t believe anyone was ejected,” Quesada said.
Shekell, who graduated from Cabrillo High School in Lompoc Calif., before moving to Fullerton played on the school’s volleyball team. She attended Cuesta College and Fullerton College before transferring to CSUF this semester.
Amanda Murray, a long-time friend from Lompoc said, “We’ve been to a couple of parties together but we always had a designated driver. She is responsible.”
Katie Pendleton, Shekell’s friend since kindergarten, stated that Shekell is familiar with the dangers of reckless driving as two of her high school friends, Brice Fabing and Mikey Terrones, died in a Halloween accident in 2005 when they were speeding and crashed at a dead end.
The CHP are currently investigating Shekell for possibly driving under the influence and depending on the results, the District Attorney can press charges, Quesada said. “Obviously there could be a DUI,” Quesada added. Based on the history and evidence gathered during the investigation process, Shekell could be facing charges such as manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter.
Kaitlin Paiz, Patrick Cowles, and Portia Bode contributed to this article.
Shekell has been charged, find out about her counts here.
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We are still having trouble barrying sally and patricia if anyone could give the smallest donation to the miguel family it would be greatly appreciated the mother victoria miguel is accepting all donations that she can who ever wants to help please email my cousin mary
marygoongirl [at] hotmail [dot] com
My thoughts and prayers are with you Miguel family members. Hopefully justice will prevail and Ms. Shekell will spend years in beautiful Chowchilla, CA.
Well…according to witnesses…Jessica WAS drinking at a house party in Anaheim Hills. Stay tuned.
Where did you see/hear that Bandini?
LA Mom, just check around different news blogs. Someone who claims to know the situation is posting comments. One of the comments said Jessica’s friends said she wasn’t too hammered…I’m paraphrasing of course and I don’t have any connection to the parties involved. There’s information out there if you look for it. Whether it’s correct or not, who knows?
It just supports what I posted earlier. I believe the delay in charges being filed are due to the lawyers going after those who hosted the party and provided the booze and let her drive to share in the culpability. I also believe there is something else going on with the tox reports. Some foul play, perhaps.
I just think her parents hired themselves some good attorneys that have stalled the proceedings against her by saying:
1. She perhaps has no criminal history
2. Her medical condition is delicate
3. The medication from her operations have left her too incoherent to understand any charges
3. Negotiating a plea agreement
I know nothing directly;these are my assumptions.
This is just starting to get ridiculous now. It’s been a month now, and still NOTHING? WTF?
Just a random thought….but does anybody think that if the toxicology reports came back clean, the suspects lawyers or advisors would have that information out to the public by now?
Legal Eagle: Very, very good point!! Dually noted!
Also, I believe Bandini may be right:
Bandini says:
November 22, 2009 at 12:11 pm
“It just supports what I posted earlier. I believe the delay in charges being filed are due to the lawyers going after those who hosted the party and provided the booze and let her drive to share in the culpability. I also believe there is something else going on with the tox reports. Some foul play, perhaps.”
Though I have to honestly say, I don’t think there is really anything foul with the tox reports…I mean, wouldn’t that have “leaked” by now? To “prove” innocence.
I’ve been following this board,and I’m not surprised that nothing is being said. In my case, the person who hit me and left me for dead came from a family with money. The parents of the then 30 something year old showed up in court on the civil charges without their adult child. The charges were dropped because “no one was hurt”. Yet, I was in the hospital on life support. To this day, I believe it was racially biased. I digress.
I really really pray that the Miguel family has a good lawyer who is keeping on top of everything and not afraid to do what he or she has to do to make sure that Jessica faces what she has done. People have to realize that if they have a friend who is drunk, do not let them drive!
There was an ex marine who wrote stuff earlier, and I do believe the way he was trained as a marine is akin to how it was in the “old days” where people looked out for each other more.
I’m praying for the Miguel family. It has to be hard on them especially during the upcoming holiday. I also question why none of the news sources have even checked in with the Miguels to let people know that they can donate to help the family. That is really a travesty. I pray that Jessica will do the right thing and hold herself accountable for the pain she has caused.
Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Be safe on the roads, look out for your friends and family at celebrations, and don’t let anyone drink and drive.
Anyone can comment on this public forum regardless of how they feel about the issue. People who seek to rile up others just need to be ignored. Their issues with who posts and how and why are not what’s important. The people involved in the wreck is what’s important and draws us here.
I am not ashamed to say I come here a few times a week to check for any updates on the Miguel’s and on Jessica. Why? Because I’ve been personally affected by a drunk driver. It only takes a few minutes to read the latest, comment if I choose, and go about my day.
I wonder what the staff and student groups of CSUF have been doing positively to educate CSUF students on the dangers of drinking and driving since this wreck occurred, especially during the holidays.
I’ve been watching this board from the beginning.
This whole thing is such a tragedy, I feel so bad for the Miguels. There are a lot of deaths that occur much like this one. It needs to stop. We do need stiffer punishment and laws surrounding drunk driving. I am also concerned, like a lot of people here, that a lot of time has passed, Jessica will celebrate Thanksgiving with her breath and the Miguels will have a heavy heart with the loss of their loved ones.
This is not swift justice in the least.
Sorry, was away at church and then went to work out at the Y. Did i miss anything?
Where did close to 30 comments go?
Does anyone else find THAT suspicious?…all of CK comments are gone…perhaps CK is involved with this school?…WTF?
I just sent this letter to the Dean of this school, along with 6 other high ranking members of Cal State University. As well as a well mix of highly recognized National news outlets:
Below is a link for a California State University, Fullerton newspaper site called The Daily Titan. Myself and a number of other citizens concerned for justice have been blogging quite regularly on this site. I’m not sure If any of the recipients of this email are familiar with the tragedy, but two sisters named Patrica and Sally Miguel were killed in a wrong way accident at 3am. The Miguel’s were not doing anything wrong (though they were not wearing their seat belts) on their way home from Knox ‘Scary’ (Berry) Farms with their two young nieces who seriously injured on 10/26/09; it was a Halloween trip. The wrong way driver is a young lady by the name of Jessica Shekell, allegedly a DUI.
Unfortunate enough as the circumstances are, there seems to be an even greater tragedy at hand; no charges filed, of any kind. No word of a BAC on Ms. Shekell or any potential charges for the lives of two innocent women lost. What we do seem to know is that Ms. Shekell has legal representation, and thus, apparently complete control of any and all information in regard to this case. There has not been one other piece of legitimate news coverage of this case since 10/26/09. Why? Are the Miguel sisters disposable? Are so many of us disposable? And why would a college website censor seemingly harmless dialog? Are there layers of cover ups going on?
Now, while a group of us bloggers have been quite vocal on the site (link below); we have of course, been met with some disdain and anger from those close to the Shekell family, which is understandable. However, now the boards are being censored; close to 30 posts were removed today alone. Why? Why is The Daily Titan censoring a public board? I recognize the disclaimer that any inappropriate content can be removed; however, the only content recently that was “bad” or aggressive was a poster by the name of CuriousKat, attacking me viciously calling me a stalker. Ironically enough, all of CuriousKats comments have been removed, after many people stepped up to defend our right to be there looking for the truth. Us bloggers on that site; “we the people” want to see justice served. A simple question stands; are you a stalker when seeking justice, when apparently this justice system is not seeking justice? I am many, many miles away from the heart of this story and my greatest “threat” has been my words of calm and curiosity, not ONE threat of any kind has been perpetrated against anyone from me.
I have no personal or otherwise connection to this particular story other than, like so many others, want to see justice for the Miguel Family. Almost a month has passed, why is this news story being buried? That could be our families celebrating Thanksgiving without two important members. We seem all too disposable.
(I added the direct link to this message board at the bottom of this letter)
END
im sure there is nothing sinister here and that they were just deleted beacause his/her posts violated the commenting policy of this board such as harassing someone.
Prime example CK posts had really nothing to do with the story just trying to quash peoples rights to comment on this sad story