Woman in wrong-way crash leaves hospital

Josephine Moulchin was wheeled out of the hospital this morning and into Nevada Highway Patrol custody after being accused of driving drunk down the wrong side of U.S. 95 last month and fatally ramming head-on into another motorist.

Moulchin showed no emotion beyond a smile to a friend who helped her from a Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center wheelchair into the front passenger seat of the patrol car that whisked her off to Clark County Detention Center at 7:13 a.m.

Her long, ash-blonde hair, its ends curled, swayed each time Moulchin moved but the thin woman's chiseled face stayed stone-still, her brown eyes not even squinting as she stared directly into the morning sun.

She never looked toward the reporters encircling her at the patrol car's door, nor responded despite a reporter repeatedly asking if she had any remorse for killing a man.

"It's definitely different," said arresting Sgt. Steve Cabrales of the Moulchin's silence as the patrol car drove away. "Usually, we see some response in situations like this."

Moulchin has been charged with felony driving while intoxicated in an incident that ended in 39-year-old Craig Schofield's death Aug. 25 at 3:57 a.m.

Trooper Scott Flabi, NHP spokesman, said Moulchin has a previous DWI conviction from a 1985 incident.

"We received information from our associated pathologists that Josephine had a blood-alcohol content of 24 percent," Sgt. Steve Cabrales, who is part of the team investigating last month's incident.

The legal blood-alcohol limit for drivers in Nevada is 0.10.

"The blood samples were taken from her within an hour of the accident. This is a serious offense. The vehicles were destroyed, and the injuries were massive."

Based on evidence and statements from witnesses, investigators determined that Moulchin entered the freeway at Decatur Boulevard and was headed east in the middle westbound lane when her van rammed head-on into Schofield's Mercedes 900.

Schofield, a floor manager at the Sahara hotel-casino, was killed instantly.

Another motorist who narrowly avoided the collision was able, with the help of one of his passengers, to pull Moulchin from her mangled van, which burst into flames near the freeway's center divider.

Paramedics rushed the woman to University Medical Center where she was treated for spinal fractures, a broken jaw and underwent surgery to save one of her feet. Moulchin was later transferred to a rehabilitative facility at Sunrise where she was taken into custody.

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