Driver charged in crash that killed 10-year-old girl in Webster, Massachusetts had been arrested a week earlier

Sherrie Mae Plitouke, the driver charged in a crash that killed a 10-year-old girl in Webster, Massachusetts earlier this month, had been arrested about a week before the crash, court records show.

Plitouke, 35, of Southbridge, was arraigned in Dudley District Court Tuesday in connection with the death of Marleigh Guevara. She's charged with motor vehicle homicide, negligent operation and speeding.

Guevara's father cried in court as prosecutors laid out what happened.  

Police said Plitouke was driving the car that hit Guevara on School Street in Webster, just feet from the girl's home on Saturday, April 11. Plitouke stayed at the scene after the crash. Webster Police Chief Michael Shaw said she had "no signs of intoxication" and had an active driver's license. A person who had an automated external defibrillator (AED) tried to help Guevara before she was rushed to a hospital in Worcester where she died.

Plitouke was arrested at her home in Southbridge six days later on April 17. She has been held on $100,000 bail.

According to court documents released Tuesday, Plitouke had been arrested in Dudley on April 3, eight days before the deadly crash. Dudley police said they found her "unresponsive" behind the wheel of her car in the middle of Center Road at 9:35 p.m. She was charged with OUI drugs, possession of fentanyl and crack cocaine, and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. She was arraigned on April 6 and released on a promise to return to court.

Five days later, on April 11, Webster police said she was speeding on School Street when she hit Guevera, who was a fourth grade student at Park Avenue Elementary School. 

According to the police report, Plitouke told officers "a child ran out in front of her car coming from the sidewalk" and that "she wasn't able to stop in time, and the child went right into the air."

Officers said she told them "after the impact, the child rolled off of her vehicle and into the roadway."

She told police she was driving 20-to-25 miles per hour, but police said "mathematical equations" using the evidence showed she was going about 41 mph in a 30-mph zone. If she was driving at the speed limit, police said she would have been able to stop her car about 57 feet before impact.

"Ms. Plitouke's speed was a major factor in this crash," police said in their report. 

"I want justice for my baby. She didn't deserve this," Marleigh's mother, Heather Pereira, told reporters outside court Tuesday.

"We all said we don't have hate towards nobody and my daughter would be saying something like that. I'm okay. As a father I can't say the same. I'm broken," said Marleigh's father Rafael Guevars. "I love her to death. This is my child. It wasn't supposed to be like this."

Plitouke was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail at her arraignment. If she posts bail, she's required to stay drug and alcohol free and she's not allowed to drive.

Webster, Massachusetts is about 58 miles southwest of Boston.