Melisa Ebert

A Cherokee woman has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of reckless driving causing serious injury by motor vehicle after backing out of another plea deal in January.

Thirty-year-old Melissa Ebert was the driver in a September, 2015 Plymouth County two vehicle accident that injured Ebert’s passenger and the other driver. Monday’s hearing had been scheduled to be on a change of venue in the case where Ebert had threatened to kill herself and her passenger before veering her car into the path of an on-coming car.

She had previously agreed to a plea deal to serve a maximum of 12 years in prison, before backing out. In the new plea deal, Ebert will serve five years in prison on each count, with the sentences served consecutively for a total of ten years.

Five other counts, including two counts of attempted murder and willful injury plus second offense OWI were dropped. She will be sentenced May 8th at 1 p.m. in Plymouth County District Court.
(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)