A Brunswick County woman is now facing an aggravated felony death by vehicle charge after a head-on crash near Ash killed 53-year-old Mary Frances Long earlier this month, with prosecutors pointing to her prior impaired-driving conviction as the reason her case escalated from a misdemeanor to a felony. Charlotte Russ Milligan, 54, was arrested on the upgraded charge Monday and given a $125,000 secured bond.
According to WWAYTV3, the warrant for the aggravated felony charge was issued Sept. 13 and served Monday, Sept. 21, at the Brunswick County courthouse. Milligan had initially been charged on the day of the crash with misdemeanor death by vehicle, driving while impaired, driving while license revoked for impaired driving, and driving left of center. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol is the investigating agency in both the earlier and now-upgraded cases.
The crash happened around 10:36 a.m. on Sept. 9, when Milligan's westbound Jeep Liberty crossed the centerline on N.C. 130 in the Ash community, slamming head-on into Long's 2023 Nissan Rogue, according to Columbus County News. The impact pushed both vehicles onto the eastbound shoulder. Long, a Crusoe resident known throughout her community as “The Cake Lady” for her professional baking and cake-decorating work, was killed in the collision.
A Prior Conviction Changed Everything
Per the warrant, Milligan is accused of unintentionally causing Long's death while driving impaired on N.C. 130, with the warrant stating that the impaired-driving offense was the proximate cause of Long's death. What turned this from a misdemeanor case into a felony matter was a conviction Milligan picked up in Brunswick County District Court on Dec. 8, 2025, for impaired driving — just nine months before the fatal crash.
Under N.C. General Statute § 20-141.4(a5), a felony death by vehicle charge is automatically elevated to aggravated felony death by vehicle when the accused driver has a prior impaired-driving conviction within seven years of the new offense, according to Carolina Attorneys. That statutory trigger is what allowed prosecutors to formalize the upgraded charge once blood tests and crash reports came back.
The stakes for Milligan are severe. A conviction for aggravated felony death by vehicle is a Class D felony that legally mandates sentencing in the aggravated range of North Carolina's Structured Sentencing grid, carrying potential active prison terms up to 204 months, or 17 years, according to DeMent Askew. That aggravated-range requirement does not necessarily remove the possibility of intermediate punishment for a Prior Record Level I offender.
Separately, Milligan was also charged with driving with a license revoked because of a prior impaired-driving offense.
Crash Landed in the Middle of a Statewide Crackdown
The fatal collision occurred squarely within North Carolina's statewide “Booze It & Lose It” Labor Day enforcement campaign, which ran from Aug. 31 through Sept. 13 and brought heightened Highway Patrol saturation patrols and checkpoints across the state, as reported by Port City Daily. The annual push is organized by the North Carolina Governor's Highway Safety Program around peak holiday travel periods.
The scale of the problem the campaign targets is stark: figures from the Governor's Highway Safety Program show that 378 of the state's 1,528 total traffic fatalities in 2025 involved alcohol-impaired drivers, representing nearly a quarter of all motor vehicle deaths statewide, the same outlet reports.
What Comes Next in Court
Milligan is scheduled to appear in Brunswick County District Court on Tuesday, and a separate hearing in her case is set for Nov. 23, WWAYTV3 reports. It remains unclear how the court will handle bond conditions at those upcoming appearances.
