OC woman pleads guilty in hit-and-run that killed Chinese citizen | KSNF/CODE

Mindy McBrien Mugshot/Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office

MIAMI, Okla. – A Fairland woman accused of killing a Chinese national by running him over has been ordered to return to court for a hearing in August.

Mindy Diane McBrien, 50, entered a blind plea in Ottawa County District Court in Miami, pleading no contest to first-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.

Associate Judge Matt Whalen found McBrien guilty in the death of Guang Xin Ye, 58, who died in a hit-and-run accident in Miami on February 5, 2022.

As the autopsy report shows, Ye’s death was an accident.

According to Elks Lodge surveillance video, on the night of Ye’s death, McBrien can be seen entering the Elks Lodge parking lot, getting into her Jeep Cherokee and driving onto Main Street. Surveillance video from surrounding businesses shows Yes Scooter’s headlight disappearing under McBrien’s vehicle. Showers of sparks can be seen coming from the floor of McBrien’s Jeep, and just moments later, first responders arrived and rendered aid to Ye, the video shows.

A witness told Ottawa County officials he found McBrien’s vehicle in a ditch later that evening and told officers McBrien “wasn’t so drunk that she didn’t know where she was going, but she was pretty drunk,” they said it in an affidavit.

Winston Connor, II, McBrien’s attorney, and prosecutor Rowdy Yates told Whalen there was no plea agreement. A blind plea essentially means there is no agreement and McBrien puts himself at the mercy of the court.

Connor said McBrien was not pleading guilty but rather guilty because “she had no memory of that evening and did not want to perjure herself.”

Ye died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries to the head and chest. An autopsy report said he had 12 broken ribs and three spinal cord fractures.

Whalen ordered McBrien to have a presentence investigation report prepared and for her to return to court on August 12 for her hearing.

She is free on $150,000 bail.