John Jefferson
Insets, clockwise from top left: Isabella Lee Gaddis and Elleana Lee Gaddis (Spartanburg Police), Melissa Ann Parker (Spartanburg County Detention Center), Brianna Lynn Foster (Spartanburg Police). Background: The mangled Hummer that was involved in the crash that killed the Gaddis sisters and Foster (WTHR).
A South Carolina woman who admitted to killing 17-year-old identical twins and their friend in a wrong-way crash while joyriding in a stolen Hummer while high on THC gummies and Adderall will spend decades in prison.
Melissa Ann Parker, 46, was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison and was ordered to pay a $25,100 fine in the deaths of twins Elleana Lee Gaddis and Isabella Lee Gaddis, as well as Brianna Lynn Foster, 18. A fourth teen survived the wreck. Parker was sentenced after she pleaded guilty to charges including DUI resulting in death, assault and battery, grand larceny, and hit-and-run.
“This never should have happened — taking drugs and driving is the same as drinking and driving,” 7th Circuit Court Solicitor Barry Barnette said in a statement, The Greenville News reported. “In this case, Parker’s decision to mix THC gummies with Adderall and then get behind the wheel of a stolen car led to an absolute nightmare situation and the death of three young women.”
The newspaper reported that Parker’s attorney, Andrew Johnston, said in a statement: “On the night of this tragedy, Melissa had a psychotic episode and tried to self-treat with THC gummies. She lost touch with reality and believed she had to run for her life in a stolen vehicle. In her panic, she drove onto the Interstate the wrong way. Three young girls died as a result. Melissa accepted full responsibility for her actions. We believe the sentence was appropriate both for the harm she inflicted and the rare circumstances of this case.”
The teens were killed at 2 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2021, near Spartanburg. It all started when Paker hopped into a Hummer left unattended in a gas station parking lot. She briefly went joyriding in the parking lot, then tried to hit a police officer at a Waffle House next door before speeding off, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported.
She was driving in opposing lanes of traffic on I-26 near Inman, in northwest South Carolina, when she hit the Kia sedan the girls were in head-on. The girls died at the scene. Parker ran off but was quickly arrested.
Maci Watts, then 17 years old, was the only survivor in the girls’ car.
“I got out of the car, and I stood up and started screaming for help,” she told Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN. “I found out later the defendant had crawled out of her car and ran away.”
Family and friends were devastated.
“They did not deserve this. They had their whole lives ahead of them,” Jodi Foster, Brianna Fosters’ mother, told CBS affiliate WTTV in Indianapolis, where the girls were from.
“They definitely did not deserve to go this soon,” Laci Bannon, a friend and classmate of the twins at Hamilton Southeastern Fishers Academy, told the outlet. “They were about to graduate. They were so close, and their lives got taken way too soon.”
The twins’ father, Andy Gaddis, was heartbroken.
“They were identical twins,” he told WXIN. “They came in together, and I hope they were asleep, but I am glad they went out together.”
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