MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A Missouri woman has been charged with first-degree murder charges following a sequence of events that led to the death of a 15-year-old Coffeyville girl.
Tenisha Mayberry, 38, Blue Springs, Mo., had been leading law enforcement on a chase that originated in a Target parking lot in Owasso, Okla., where she was suspected of shoplifting from the store.
According to the Montgomery County Chronicle, she was initially pulled over by an Owasso police officer before fleeing the scene, briefly dragging a police officer a short distance in the process. The officer was treated and released from a local hospital.
A high-speed chase ensued, proceeding north into Kansas, when Mayberry reportedly failed to yield at a stoplight at the intersection of Patterson Boulevard and Eighth Street in downtown Coffeyville, striking the passenger side of a vehicle driven by Maia E. O’Connell, 17, Coffeyville. O’Connell’s younger sister, Serafina L. O’Connell, 15, was in the passenger seat.
The younger O’Connell was taken to a Tulsa hospital, where she died Monday. The older sister was treated at Coffeyville Regional Medical Center for minor injuries, the newspaper reported.
The O’Connells were reportedly headed to a Field Kindley High School football game and homecoming ceremony, the newspaper reported.
Charges of aggravated battery with bodily harm were upgraded to first-degree murder charges, the newspaper reported.
A passenger in Mayberry’s vehicle, Cortez Wasson Jr., 19, Blue Springs, also was taken into custody.
