By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
An Atmore woman, charged with driving under the influence of an unspecified substance in causing the death of her 2-year-old son and injuries to herself and six other people in a February crash near Atmore Country Club, was released from jail last Thursday.
According to an employee of Circuit Clerk John Robert Fountain’s office, 31-year-old Sarah Emily Janes was released after a $500,000 bond, set by District Court Judge Eric Coale, was posted on her behalf. Bond was originally denied during a March 5 hearing due to a request by the District Attorney’s office for an Aniah’s Law hearing.
Court records show that the bond has two conditions, that Janes can’t drive a motor vehicle and cannot have any contact with the victims who were in the car she hit.
Janes, who was also hospitalized, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol officers on February 28, when doctors released her from the facility. She was booked into the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola on one count of reckless murder due to the child’s death in a Pensacola, Fla., hospital. She was also charged with two counts of first-degree assault-DUI. She was transferred to the Escambia County Detention Center on March 3.
The 2-year-old was reportedly in a car seat that was taken from the wrecked vehicle and placed in a roadside ditch. An ambulance hadn’t yet arrived, and the critically injured child was rushed by a city police officer and a city firefighter to Atmore Community Hospital.
From there he was flown by air ambulance to an area trauma center, where he reportedly went into cardia arrest. He was then flown to another trauma center, where he remained on life support for three days before succumbing to his injuries.
According to Alabama State Trooper reports, Janes was driving a Cadillac SRX, with the 2-year-old and a 4-year-old as passengers. The Cadillac reportedly slammed head-on into a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica driven by Brittany N. Colley, 38, of Mobile.
Colley (not “Collins” as previously reported) was injured, and she and her four children — ages 15, 12, 9 and 6 years — who were passengers in her vehicle were further imperiled when the Chrysler caught fire and became “fully involved” with flames. The injured woman, the injured 12-year-old and several unidentified bystanders pulled the other young victims from the burning mini-van.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency officials had not replied by Tuesday’s press deadline to an email request sent last Friday, March 7, seeking identification of the intoxicant Janes was allegedly under the influence of when the crash occurred, and what prompted the first-degree assault charges.
It will apparently be almost two months from the date of the accident before any further details are divulged. Judge Coale set a preliminary hearing for 9 a.m. on April 23. The delay in the proceedings was blamed on a backlog of cases pending before the court.