LCPD: Mother driving drunk with 3 children in car involved in wreck

Police charged a woman involved in a crash late Monday evening with DWI and child abuse for allegedly driving drunk with three young children in the vehicle.

Marlayna Dorward, 31, of the 4800 block of south Main Street, is charged with a third-degree felony count of Child Abuse and a misdemeanor count of Aggravated Driving While Intoxicated.

Las Cruces police were dispatched to a wreck involving two vehicles at the intersection of south Main Street at Union Avenue at about 10 p.m. on July 30, 2018.

Police said Dorward was heading west on Union in a white Nissan Versa when she collided with a Subaru SUV traveling east on Union. An investigation revealed Dorward failed to yield before making a left-hand turn, police said.

Dorward’s three children – ages ten, three and eleven months – were in the vehicle. No major injuries were reported, police said.

Police officers at the scene detected a strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from Dorward and learned she consumed whiskey earlier in the evening, officials said.

Officers conducted a standardized field sobriety test on Dorward and determined she was intoxicated. She was arrested for the DWI and later submitted to a breath test that confirmed her intoxication.

Dorward was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center where she is initially being held without bond.