Identical and inseparable, the Stokes twins were softball stars. Then came the crash

Before the wreck that killed the two people on the passenger side of the car, before the packed funeral that included a tearful eulogy from softball’s biggest celebrity, before the court case that may finally be decided Wednesday after five postponements, Mia and Mallory Stokes were simply twins and best friends.

They were inseparable and identical, resembling each other so much that everyone but their family and closest friends had no idea which one was which. They always shared a room at home in Charlotte and a sport at school, playing softball first for Lincoln Charter High in Denver and then as college freshmen at USC Union.

It was hard to imagine them apart, because they so rarely were. On a softball field, in church or in a classroom, they were the Stokes twins.

On Feb. 7, 2020, they were also passengers in the same car — a car that was hit by an allegedly drunk driver who crossed the center line of a South Carolina road in Spartanburg County at approximately 82 mph in a 45-mph zone and plowed head-on into a vehicle containing four teammates from USC Union’s softball team.

Mia Stokes, who was 18, died in the crash. Gracie Revels, her 20-year-old college teammate from Lancaster, S.C., also died. The driver of the teammates’ car, Devyn Royce, survived. And Mallory Stokes survived, although she’s never been quite the same.

“I lost half my soul that night,” Mallory Stokes said. “I had never been just Mallory. I was always part of a pair.”

The allegedly drunk driver of the car that hit the four teammates was named Yuriy Karpik. On June 26, Karpik is scheduled to stand trial. Among the charges: two counts of felony DUI resulting in death.

However, a guilty plea from Karpik appears imminent.

A plea hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Spartanburg, said Eric Stokes, Mallory’s father, and the victims’ families have been told that Karpik is expected to plead guilty to all charges. Karpik would then be sentenced by S.C. Circuit Court Judge R. Keith Kelly, who has wide sentencing latitude but is expected to impose a prison sentence of somewhere from 12-25 years in prison for Karpik.

Mallory Stokes, now 22, plans to read a victim impact statement in court Wednesday.

After devoting much of her life to softball, she quit playing the sport immediately after the wreck. She has panic attacks and usually sleeps in her parents’ room on a spare mattress.

Because the crash happened at night — about 10:10 p.m., after the four teammates had made a shopping trip to Academy Sports for long-sleeved shirts to wear under their softball uniforms — she remains scared to drive in the dark.

“He took my best friend away,” Stokes said of Karpik. “And he robbed the world of an amazing young lady who was such a bright light in this dark world.”

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The Stokes family is determined that the world doesn’t forget Mia, who was named for soccer star Mia Hamm. They have established the Mia Stokes Foundation, which sells inspirational T-shirts and sweatshirts in a typeface crafted from Mia’s handwriting. Numerous members of the Oklahoma softball team, which won its third straight Women’s College World Series in 2023, have been among the thousands sporting Mia Stokes gear.

The foundation has raised more than $100,000 and gives the money back to charities that were close to Mia’s heart. It sponsors an annual scholarship at Lincoln Charter High and gave away several hundred $25 Uber and Lyft gift cards to young people who pledged not to drink and drive last New Year’s Eve.

In recent months, Mallory has also begun talking about the accident while representing MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). She has spoken to numerous high schools, as well as to several minor-league baseball teams.

“I am absolutely in awe of Mallory,” said Kimberly Cockrell, the victim services manager for MADD South Carolina. “She and her family have taken a horrible tragedy and turned it into a beautiful mission. I hope to one day be one quarter of the person Mallory Stokes is.”

Kind, generous and driven by faith

The Stokes twins occasionally used their mirror-image looks for tomfoolery. In second grade, they switched classrooms on April Fools’ Day.

Like all identical twins, they weren’t completely indistinguishable to those who knew them best.

“Mia was shy and quiet,” said Holly Stokes, the twins’ mother. “She’d make Mallory talk first when they entered any room.”

Mia liked to wear blue and red; Mallory favored pinks and purples. Mia was ultra-competitive and play-fought more with the twins’ older brother Matt, also a talented athlete who played college baseball.

“I always had a tough time telling Mia and Mallory apart,” said Jonathan Bryant, the chief administrator of Lincoln Charter. “They were kind, generous, driven by their faith and always together.”

Mallory got her ears pierced first and this was an identifier until Mia decided to get hers pierced, too. At least they played different positions in softball. Mallory pitched and Mia would catch, or Mia played third base and Mallory first. Mia was the line-drive specialist; Mallory the power hitter.

“We balanced each other out,” Mallory said. “We got matching tattoos that read: ‘Two are better than one,’ which is a verse from Ecclesiastes. We always believed that.”

A friendship with Jennie Finch

The twins became close to several members of the U.S. national softball team, starting in sixth grade when they attended one of the softball camps run by Jennie Finch — an Olympic gold medal pitcher who is one of the most well-known softball players.

By the second camp, Finch had gotten to know the entire Stokes family, but particularly the twins.

“Who could forget those sweet faces?” Finch said in her eulogy at Mia Stokes’ funeral.

Held on Valentine’s Day in 2020, a week after the wreck, that service was attended by an overflow crowd of 1,200 people. Another 1,200 people were turned away.

Leah O’Brien-Amico, a three-time Olympic gold medal winner in softball for Team USA, took such a liking to the Stokes that she invited them on softball trips that O’Brien-Amico led to Italy and Australia.

Like Finch, O’Brien-Amico kept in touch with the Stokes twins for years, frequently sending them encouraging texts after they left home to play college softball at USC Union, about 90 minutes from Charlotte.

The twins found the adjustment to college tough at times because they were self-described “homebodies.” But they made the Dean’s List in their first college semester at USC Union.

They got to play exactly three games of real college softball before the wreck. Mia went 3-for-3 with a double in the last game she played.

“They never even fought,” O’Brien-Amico said of the twins when she spoke about them at the funeral. “They just loved each other.”

“They thanked me 100 times over,” Finch said. “In reality, I was the one most thankful, to witness their love and their bond.”

The night of the crash

On the evening of the wreck, the Stokes parents had just gone to bed when they got an 11:05 p.m. call that they needed to go to Spartanburg. The four young women had all been taken to the hospital by then, although there wasn’t much that could be done for Revels and Mia Stokes.

“Passenger side of the car died,” Holly Stokes said. “Driver’s side lived.”

In Mallory Stokes’ hospital room, they found a twin who everyone said had been screaming for her sister but who three years later remembers nothing from the immediate hours after the wreck.

Mallory Stokes’ primary injury that night was a broken right arm.

Mia had died at the scene. Mallory helped pick out the music for Mia’s funeral.

The wreck happened the month before the United States shut down due to COVID in March 2020.

“Sometimes it feels like it’s been forever, and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday,” Mallory Stokes said.

Mallory Stokes is trying to rebuild her life. She dropped out of USC Union but now is taking college courses online. She coaches middle school softball at Lincoln Charter and helps her mom teach preschool.

And although she’s never played a softball game since the wreck, she’s thinking about trying it recreationally.

“Play church softball with me,” Matt Stokes, her older brother, said one night at dinner.

“I might just do it,” Mallory said.

As for Mia, the Stokes family knows it will always remember her. They have photos, of course. But a reminder is forever present.

Said the twins’ father, Eric: “I take some consolation that I can look at Mallory and see exactly what Mia would have looked like. And I can do that when she’s 25, or 30, or 40. At least we can all have that.”