CHESTER, S.C. — Rosalyn Witherspoon spent two days in the hospital this week.
She had a complete breakdown after learning of the sudden death of the father of her three children.
"Everybody loved Jermaine,” she said. “He'd make you smile even on your worst day."
Witherspoon and Jermaine Chandler, 34, have children ages 12, 10 and 9, one boy and two girls.
Chandler was killed in a head-on crash in Chester County Sunday night.
Late Thursday, troopers arrested Alicia Hughes, 30, and charged her with felony DUI causing death.
Hughes walked into court Friday for a bond hearing handcuffed with a gash on her chin.
Hughes was driving drunk on Highway 21 in Chester County Sunday when she crossed the center line and hit another car head on, troopers said. Chandler was a passenger in that other car.
His girlfriend, Yaneshia Craig, was driving.
Chandler was pronounced dead at a Columbia hospital.
Witherspoon said their children are just now feeling the impact of losing their father.
"My son took it the hardest, but I think for the girls, reality probably won't really set in until tomorrow, at their dad's funeral," she said.
At the crash site near the York County line there is lots of debris and personal items scattered about on the roadside. Things like makeup, hairbrushes and clothes.
Hughes has no current address, and everything she owned was in her car, with her that night.
That's one reason they strongly opposed bond for her, said Trooper Brian Benfield.
"This was a senseless death, she caused. If she gets out on bond, we could be revisiting this same situation today, or tomorrow or one day next week," Benfield said.
A check of North Carolina arrest records found that in in 2014 Hughes had a previous DWI conviction. She was found passed out in a car at a Salisbury gas station, after someone reported seeing a possibly drunk driver on the road. Hughes is from nearby Thomasville.
Chandler's family told Channel 9 they want to see her go to prison, but that's not their only desire.
"Not only does she deserve to go to prison, I feel like she's probably going to need some kind of counseling too, because I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to take my children's father away from us," Witherspoon said. "I'm sure this is very hard on her too."
Hughes did not speak in court on Friday. She could spend 20 years in prison if she's convicted.
Cox Media Group
