Mitchell woman pleads no contest in DUI, property damage case

A Mitchell woman pleaded no contest Tuesday to two charges that came after she stole two vehicles and crashed them in rural Davison County.

Jade Abdo, 24, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine for intentionally causing property damage of more than $1,000 but less than $100,000, and a maximum of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine for first-offense drunken driving.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss other charges in exchange for Abdo’s plea.

The charges stem from an incident that, according to court documents, began shortly after 2 a.m. Sept. 17 when law enforcement received a 911 call from residents at a home on Betts Road in rural Davison County. They reported an intoxicated woman who came to their door asking for directions, then left in a pickup.

Shortly after that, another 911 caller reported a small fire in the area. South Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Podzimek responded to the call.

After following nearby tracks where a vehicle appeared to have entered the ditch, crashed through several fences and drove through cornfields and pastures, Podzimek found Abdo slumped behind the wheel of a Ford F-250 pickup at the intersection of 400th Avenue and 264th Street.

The intersection is located southwest of Mitchell about five miles from the home of the residents who called 911.

Abdo’s blood alcohol content was found to be 0.119 around the time of her arrest, court documents say. The legal limit for driving in South Dakota is 0.08.

The rear driver’s side tire was torn off the pickup in the incident, causing the rim to scrape and gouge into the road, court documents say, and about 100 feet of fence wire had caught on the pickup.

According to court documents, the pickup was reported stolen when its owner called the Davison County Sheriff’s Office and reported another vehicle, a Buick LeSabre, was stuck in a manure pile in his yard and his pickup was missing. Inside the LeSabre, law enforcement allegedly found several items with Abdo’s name on them: an envelope, a pay stub, a Social Security card and paperwork from the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

The Buick was also later reported stolen out of Mitchell.

“She started drinking,” said Abdo’s court-appointed attorney Donna Bucher, of Mitchell, “and after consuming alcohol she blacked out and has no recollection of doing these things.”

A presentence investigation was ordered. Sentencing was set for March. the state list of predators

Tags: drunken driving, news, updates, crime, courts, local, mitchell, dui