Dayton woman faces 5 years in New Year's OVI crash that sent 6 to hospital
Jul. 20—A 26-year-old Dayton woman faces five years in prison for an OVI crash New Year's Day last year that sent six people, including three children, to local hospitals.
Shawna Renee Harris pleaded guilty Tuesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to three counts of aggravated vehicular assault and a misdemeanor OVI count. All other charges were dismissed.
Harris was indicted in August 2021 on nearly a dozen charges, including four counts of aggravated vehicular assault, five counts of endangering children and two misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
Dayton police and medics responded just after 1:30 a.m. Jan. 1, 2021, to a crash in the 1400 block of Philadelphia Drive. Harris was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu that went left of center and hit a 2016 Ford Fusion head-on, according to a Dayton Police Department crash report.
Harris and the driver of the Ford were taken to a hospital with suspected serious injuries. Three children riding in the Malibu, ages 5, 3 and 1, suffered serious injuries and were taken to Dayton Children's Hospital, and a 23-year-old woman riding in the Malibu also was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, the report stated. The 5-year-old reportedly was paralyzed following the crash, police said.
Harris did not have a valid license and the report stated that her blood-alcohol content tested at .194, which is more than double Ohio's legal driving limit of 0.08.
There were no passengers in the Ford driven by Waverly Dante Hawes of Dayton, who the report stated had a BAC of .238 — nearly three times Ohio's legal driving limit. A misdemeanor OVI charge was filed against him in September 2021 in Dayton Municipal Court.
A pretrial hearing scheduled for Monday was vacated on July 6, the same day the case was closed following the June 23 death of Hawes, court records show.
He was identified by Dayton police as the person of interest in the deadly June 23 double shooting of his girlfriend Aisha Nelson, 31, and her 6-year-old daughter Harper Monroe. They were found shot to death in the basement of the home they shared with Hawes in the 300 block of Burleigh Avenue in Dayton.
Hawes, 32, was found dead later that day inside a car in Falkville, Alabama, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, investigators there said.
A sentencing date for Harris has not yet been set. She was booked Tuesday into the Montgomery County Jail.
