Bond set at $3M for suspect in fatal Briarcrest crash

June 01--A five-time convicted drunken driver charged with felony DUI in the fatal crash that killed two Briarcrest Christian School students said he wasn't drunk the morning of the accident and apologized to the families of the girls he killed.

Shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Melandus Penson made the statements as he was led out of court after his arraignment hearing Monday in Marshall County Justice Court in Holly Springs. The judge set his bond at $3 million.

Penson, 32, of Belden, Mississippi is charged with two counts of DUI causing death and three counts of DUI causing injury in the fatal crash Sunday morning on U.S. 78 in Marshall County, just over the DeSoto County line.

Rachel Lynch, 17, and Maddie Kruse, 16, died in the accident. Caroline Kam, one of the five people in the car, received minor injuries. Kara Holden, 17, suffered a broken collarbone, broken ribs and other injuries. She was listed in fair condition Monday at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.

Roxanne Anderson, Kam's 59-year-old grandmother, was the driver of the car, the Mississippi Highway Patrol confirmed. She wasn't seriously injured, and was back home Monday but declined to talk to The Commercial Appeal.

According to authorities, the girls who got of school last week were headed to the beach with Anderson.

Penson said the driver, who he was behind in his car, "braked and swerved" causing him to rear-end the car. But he insisted that he had not been drinking.

In addition to the DUI charges, Penson also was charged with following too close, driving on a suspended license and not having insurance.

In seeking the $3 million bond, Marshall County prosecutor Shirley Byers noted Penson's previous DUI convictions and that he has no ties to the area.

According to court records, Sunday's fatal crash marks Penson's seventh DUI arrest since 2008.

Penson has been convicted five times for DUI after he pleaded guilty to drunken driving in Lee, Pontotoc and Union counties with the last conviction in 2014. He was out of bond on a sixth offense awaiting trial at the time of Sunday's crash.

In each case, Penson paid or is still paying fines ranging from $500 to $800. He spent two days in jail and had his license suspended for 90 days until he completed a mandatory alcohol safety education class.

In Mississippi, the first DUI conviction is a misdemeanor, Byers said. A second DUI conviction means automatic jail time and a third DUI conviction is a felony if it falls within a five-year period of the other convictions.

"It really surprises me that all his charges were DUI first," Byers said about Penson's previous DUI charges. "I did look at them and they were close in time to each other. I can see where they were probably missed. One conviction was one month and the next month there were two convictions. Those three probably never got to Jackson before the next conviction."

She stopped short of saying that Penson's convictions fell through the cracks.

"I can tell you what I do. If I have a DUI first offense and a DUI second, I pull the record and run it with the local sheriff's department to make sure there are no other violations. You have to compile all the paperwork and send it to the Department of Public Safety.

"It is not done electronically. That may be a process they can look at in the future. But even if it was done electronically it may not have been caught. I'm not excusing it. It is a tragedy. Two lives have been taken and three others injured. My sympathy goes out to the families of teenagers killed."

Penson is due back in court for a preliminary hearing June 8. He has been appointed a public defender to represent him on the current charges in Marshall County.

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