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Charges certified to grand jury for case involving fatal crash that killed two Portsmouth girls

Posted at 2:02 PM, Sep 29, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-29 18:45:46-04

Portsmouth, Va. - The woman charged in a fatal car crash that left two young girls dead was in Portsmouth Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Tuesday for her preliminary hearing.

Takiara Lewis-White, 20, was driving on I-264 west when she crashed at the Greenwood Drive exit, according to police.

Takiara D Lewis-White

There were three children with her in the car at the time.  Destiny Wilson, 8, and Shawnta Wilson, 5, both died at the scene.  They were not related to Lewis-White.  A one-year-old boy was also in the car.

After listening to testimony from several witnesses, the judge certified Lewis-White's felony charges to a grand jury.  She was found guilty of the misdemeanor charges: reckless driving, driving with a revoked license and no child restraint.

Several of them got choked up as they looked at photos from the scene and described what happened, including a state trooper.

He'd been conducting radar near Victory Blvd. when he says Lewis-White sped past him, going 77 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone.

The trooper said to catch up to her, he went up to 120 miles an hour.  He then went about 100 - 102 mph for a quarter of a mile as he followed her.  When she got to the Greenwood Dr. exit ramp, 2A, he says she tapped the brake but lost control and the car rolled once.

The trooper said Lewis-White appeared to be in shock when he walked up to her, saying that she was crying and screaming.

He became emotional as he described trying to perform CPR on the two girls but was unable to resuscitate them.

The Commonwealth also played video from his dash camera, showing the chase and crash.

Throughout the hearing, family of the two girls cried and shook their heads as they listened to the testimony.