An Illinois college student murdered two people while driving drunk. But that did not seem to faze her. Instead, she smiled during a field sobriety test only minutes after crashing her car and causing a double homicide. The 24-year-old college student named Stephanie Melgoza was three times over the legal limit, which means she was exceptionally drunk while driving.
On Thursday, the Farmington student was sentenced to fourteen years behind bars for the deaths of Andrea Rosewicz, 43, of Avon, Ohio, and Paul Prowant, 55, of Seattle, Washington. During the course of her trial, Melgoza pleaded guilty to four felonies for aggravated DUI and aggravated reckless driving, which occurred back in February. She had previously been charged with an additional four lesser charges, but those charges were dropped earlier this year after she made her guilty plea as part of a bargain with prosecutors.
The DUI crash occurred on April 10, 2022. Melgoza used her car as a deadly weapon and mowed down the pedestrians while they were crossing the street near the Full Throttle bar in East Peoria, Illinois.
When the then-Bradley University student was given a field sobriety test, she failed miserably. She was found to be drunk and three times over the legal limit. During the interaction with the police officers, she confessed that she had consumed three vodka drinks and was in possession of cannabis in her purse.
On Saturday, the police released body camera footage. In the footage, Melgoza giggles her way through the light field sobriety test. She has a maniacal smile on her face and clearly does not have any remorse for killing the two pedestrians who were walking across the street while she was driving recklessly.
During the field sobriety test, the drunk driver moves her head back and forth instead of just her eyes.
“Just your eyes,” the police officer said to remind her.
“It’s really hard, it’s really hard,” Melgoza confesses. She then grabs the sides of her face to try to steady her head and stop it from moving during the test. She continuously failed the field sobriety test, all while holding a massive smile on her face.
On Thursday, the day of her sentencing, Melgoza told the jury, “I have not drunk since that day. I do not plan on drinking ever again. I want to try to do something positive to make a difference, speak out about this and warn others about the dangers that come with drinking. I’m so sorry for everything, and I will never, ever commit anything like that again.”
When she recalled the events of the accident, Melgoza claimed that one of her victims “walked out in front of me” while she was driving to Full Throttle. And then her “car got hit” by the pedestrian, not the other way around.
“Someone said: ‘Oh, someone else is hit.’ And I said: ‘Oh my God, how did that happen?’” she said. “They came out of nowhere because I’m a safe driver.”
