FULTON COUNTY, Ind. — An Indiana woman convicted of killing three children with her pickup truck at a northern Indiana bus stop was released from prison Wednesday.
Alyssa Shepherd was sentenced in December 2019 to 10 years for the deaths of 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and 6-year-old twins Mason and Xzavier Ingle in the crash the morning of Oct. 30, 2018. The judge sentenced Shepherd to serve four years in the Department of Correction, plus three years of home detention and the remaining three years on probation.
Her earliest release date from prison had been Sept. 22, 2022, but it was moved up after Shepherd completed a bible study course in prison that would cut time from her sentence.
The Indiana Department of Correction now lists Shepherd's projected release date as March 9, 2022.
A spokesman for Rockville Correctional Facility confirmed to NBC affiliate WNDU that Shepherd was released to her family just before 7 a.m.
“We obviously wanted more time, executed at the time of sentencing, the judge sentenced her to what he did, which was a 10-year sentence with four years executed, and then she got the time cut,” explained Marrs.
Shepherd will serve the three years of home detention while wearing a GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet before serving the three years of probation. Her driver's license is suspended until 2032, Marrs said.
Last fall, Shepherd had tried to take advantage of the Community Transition Program, which was recommended by probation officers, and would have had her out of prison before the end of last year.
But a Fulton County judge ruled in November that she must complete her prison sentence, minus the credit time she had earned.
Family of the children killed and hurt in the crash said in November that Shepherd had not, at least at that time, attempted to reach out to them or apologize for her actions.
"To this day Shepherd has not taken responsibility for her actions, has never even apologized for killing our children and has never shown remorse for her actions. She received a 6 month reduction in her sentence for simply completing a Bible Study class which we feel was absurd," family member said in a statement last fall.
Shepherd has claimed in the past that she didn't realize she was approaching a stopped school bus, despite the activated stop arm and flashing lights.