Tue, May 30, 2017, at 3:15 PM
Muncie – A second arrest was made this afternoon as the result of the ongoing investigation into a fatal crash that claimed the life of a 6-year-old girl Sunday afternoon. Sunday around 4:30 p.m. officers responded to a report of an overturned vehicle on northbound SR 67, the Muncie Bypass, just north of Meeker Avenue. Troopers Coley McCutcheon and Eric Patterson along with Delaware County Deputies arrived to find a car rolled over on the right side of the road.
The preliminary investigation indicated the driver, Jessica Skeens age 28 of Farmland, was driving a van north on the Muncie bypass with her boyfriend, Nathaniel Jordan, age 27 of Muncie, with two of her children in the middle seat in child restraint seats, and two more of her children in the rear seat without child restraint seats.
Skeens and Jordan had been arguing when Jordan punched Skeens and grabbed the steering wheel, causing her to lose control of the van. The vehicle left the right side of the roadway rolling over into the ditch, coming to rest on its wheels.
Skeens 6-year-old daughter, Taelyn Woodson, a back seat passenger who was not properly restrained in a child restraint seat, was partially ejected out of a window and succumbed to her injuries. The other three children in the van were transported to I.U. Health’s Ball Memorial Hospital for the treatment of minor injuries. Crash Reconstruction Investigator Trooper Scott Keegan was summoned to the scene to assist with the investigation.
After the prosecutor’s office preliminary review of the ongoing investigation, Jessica Skeens, age 28, was arrested this afternoon and charged with Neglect of a Dependent Causing Death, Level 1 Felony; Operating While Intoxicated Causing the Death of another person, a Level 5 Felony; Operating While Intoxicated with a passenger less than 18 years of age, Level 5 Felony and three counts of Neglect of a Dependent, Level 5 Felony.
Toxicology reports showed that Skeens had a B.A.C. over the .08% legal limit at the time of the crash. Skeens was lodged in the Delaware County Jail.This is all the information available for release at this time.
All Suspects Are Presumed Innocent Until Proven Guilty in a Court of Law
SOURCE: Indiana State Police