Two days after the fatal car crash at Oklahoma State University that claimed four lives and injured nearly four dozen more people, the woman suspected of driving her car into a crowd at the school's homecoming parade made her first appearance in court.
Police say Adacia Chambers ran a red light and drove around a barricade before striking pedestrians and crashing into a pole Saturday morning.
The 25-year-old said little during her appearance by video uplink from the Payne County Jail. District Judge Katherine Thomas set Chambers' bond at $1 million and ordered a psychological evaluation, but most people left the Payne County Courthouse with more questions than answers.
Dressed in his nice overalls and wearing his Oologah High School cap, Floyd Chambers walked up to Payne County Courthouse on Monday holding hands with his sister. In tears, they talked to the media about their confusion about Adacia Chambers, the woman they know and love, the woman they spent time with on Friday night and how they just can’t reconcile why she drove her car into a crowd of people.
The one thing Floyd Chambers says he does know is that he’s devastated, and not just for his daughter.
"I just want to say on behalf of the family that I’m very sorry for those victims for those people who lost their life," says Floyd Chambers. "It’s a horrible tragic accident, and my heart goes out to them, and my family has prayed for them."
Chambers said he talked to his 25-year-old daughter on Friday and that she told him she wanted to move home. She had just been in Stillwater for a few months, but she missed being there. Chambers has kept a careful watch over his daughter for years, checking her into an inpatient mental health hospital in Wagoner four years ago.
"Because she’s an adult, her diagnosis, if any, was not disclosed to her father, " says defense attorney Tony Coleman.
But he says she seemed to be doing better, holding down a steady job and reconnecting with her high school boyfriend, Jesse Gaylord. Earlier this year, she moved from her dad’s house in Oologah to be with her boyfriend in Stillwater.
And then there was Saturday, a day that many people are trying to piece together.
Early that morning, she went to work at Freddy’s Frozen Custard. In spite of initial reports of her being fired, her boss says she was a model employee. But about 10 a.m. that morning, thirty minutes before the crash, she left.
"It wasn’t anything sinister," says Coleman, who talked to her about that morning. "Her reason for leaving, wasn’t uh, it wouldn’t be a reason for a person to leave, but that will come out later."
In any case, she did leave and 30 minutes later, she ran through a police barricade and barreled her car into a crowd of people who were watching the end of the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade. She was arrested at the scene and when she was booked into jail.
"I believe the affidavit of probable cause states that during book-in that she was suicidal at the time of the accident but no longer at the time of book-in," says Payne County District attorney Laura Austin Thomas. "Well, her suicidal acts became homicidal in nature as she barreled through this crowd of people."
Read the probable cause affidavit for Adacia Chambers' arrest
Probable cause affidavit for Adacia Chambers, page 1. @KOSURadio pic.twitter.com/O1Kp6TECJY
— Rachel Hubbard (@kosurachel) October 26, 2015
Probable cause affidavit for Adacia Chambers, page 2. @KOSURadio pic.twitter.com/2iRunc7DZK
— Rachel Hubbard (@kosurachel) October 26, 2015
On Monday, Thomas filed that affidavit of probable cause in court and filed a motion asking for a two week extension to let the investigation continue and the toxicology report to be finished. Chambers’ attorney filed a motion asking for a psychological evaluation of his client. He says she is listless and doesn’t seem to understand that she killed and injured people on Saturday.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 13.
