CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — One week after a driver was sentenced in a deadly seven-vehicle accident in Corpus Christi, one of the victims who was severely and permanently injured in that crash is sharing her family's untold story for the first time.
The crash happened in November of 2021 at Airline and SPID. The suspect's truck hit several vehicles in the parking lot of the old Sunrise Mall.
One man was killed and two others were seriously hurt, including Rev. Lanita Monroe, who said it was important for her to share her family's part of the story from that day, in order for her to close the chapter on her healing journey.
The accident left her with life-altering injuries, but she said she knows how extremely lucky she is to be alive.
That life-altering day
"I was with my daughter," Monroe said. "She was driving. My 11-month-old granddaughter was beside me in the back seat. We had about 45 minutes before she was to put me on the airplane to come home to Tennessee."
The family was stopped at a red light at the intersection of SPID and Airline.
Monroe would never make the flight on that November day in 2021.
"Rosalind had dropped one of her toys, and so we were stopped at the stop light," she said. "(I) unbuckled my seatbelt, reached over, got the toy, dropped it in the cup holder."
Just before the light turned green, she put her seatbelt back on. It was then that she said she received the spiritual intervention that would save her life.
"I sat back, I heard the audible command 'lean forward,' " she said.
It was a decision that quite possibly saved her life.
The family's vehicle was hit by a truck said to have topped speeds at 100 miles per hour.
"We flipped front-over-end, at least three times," she said. "The person who hit us went air-bound and landed in Planet Fitness (the parking lot). That is where everybody thought the chaos was."
The family's car one of the first to be hit at the intersection.
It ended up in the Wendy's parking lot.
Monroe shared pictures of what the car looked like before, and after, the crash.
"I was sitting right there," she said, pointing to a picture of the back seat that had been crushed.
Her daughter and granddaughter were taken to Driscoll Children's Hospital.
"Because my seatbelt was loose, I ended up draped over (Rosalind)," Monroe said. "She was in a really good car seat, she didn't get cut, thank goodness."
She said her daughter didn't know if Monroe was dead or alive.
The long road to recovery
The next thing she remembers is waking up in the ICU.
"Ten days in ICU and then three weeks in Doctor's Regional," she said.
She suffered a long list of injuries.
"Broken ankle, dislocated femur, broken pelvis, crushed sciatic nerve, degloved, missing, and dead muscle mass which had to be removed for the piriformis, gluteus minimus, and gluteus medius, lacerated kidney, 10 broken ribs, fractured thoracic vertebrae, and brain bleed (all on my left side)," she said. "The trauma caused seizures, night mares, tachycardia, vertigo, post-traumatic stress, drop-foot and other on-going issues."
The Tennessee woman of the cloth faced a long road to recovery.
"I stayed with my daughter and her family for three months before coming home to Tennessee," she said. "I have since had to have my hip replaced because the femur eventually died."
Despite it all, Monroe, a senior pastor at Fairfield Glade United Methodist Church in Tennessee, knows how blessed they are.
"That is what we all hold onto -- Lea, Rosalind and I are all alive, still functioning," she said. "It could have been so much worse."
More than two years after the crash, the man who caused the accident -- Derek St. Amant -- was sentenced to 6 years in jail by a judge last week after being found guilty on two counts of intoxication assault and one count of intoxication manslaughter.
3NEWS asked if Monroe believed six years in jail was enough.
"I have to decide I am not the one who judges that," she said. "Ultimately, he will be judged by God, just like we all will be."
Monroe said since the accident, the trial faced several delays. She hoped the case would be tried in front of a jury, which is when she would have been able to give her statement.
However, because St. Amant took a plea deal that couldn't happen until after the fact, which is another reason why she felt it was so important to share her story -- to illustrate the devastating impact that choosing to drive under the influence can have on others.
"I said 'Wait a minute: I was supposed to be able to talk.' For me, it was how my voice can be heard -- my daughter, granddaughter, my son-in-law, adult son with autism -- our lives have been forever changed," she said. "I just needed somebody else to hear my story."