Michele Lynn Wood, who is charged with manslaughter stemming from a June 12th auto accident claiming the life of an unborn child, will undergo a mental evaluation, according to motions filed in her case Thursday.
Wood’s attorney has filed notice of intent to rely on the defense of mental disease and defect. Motions were also filed asking for examinations to determine criminal responsibility and fitness to proceed.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, the 43-year-old Wood was reported driving in a reckless manner on June 12th,as she traveled through a wide swath of the county. A number of calls to 911 reported her progress,as well as information on her erratic activities both inside and outside her vehicle.
Eventually, a witness reported Wood’s car had driven by him on the courthouse square Mountain Home. Her car then collided with another vehicle. A passerby rushed a then unidentified passenger in the car hit by Wood’s vehicle to Baxter Regional Medical Center. It was determined the passenger, later identified as Callie Brooks Roemmich, was eight months pregnant at the time.
It was reported Roemmich was immediately taken into surgery after arriving at BRMC, and a female baby was delivered. The baby was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where she died after being taken off life support about two days after arriving at the Little Rock hospital.
Bodycam video recorded on the night of the accident shows a person identified as a passenger in Wood’s vehicle telling police immediately after the accident, “She was driving way too fast for conditions coming around that curve. I told her to slow down.”
It is customary for all activity in a case to stop until results from mental examinations are received, and it is determined the person being tested is fit to proceed. If not found fit, the person is generally committed to the custody of the Arkansas Department of Human Services to receive psychiatric care.
Wood is currently a prisoner in the Baxter County Detention Center with bond set at $25,000.
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