By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

INDEPENDENCE - A 34-year-old Independence woman was charged Thursday with driving drunk and causing a wreck that killed a Northern Kentucky University senior.

Jodi Truster is charged with murder, two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and driving drunk for the second time. She was convicted in 2000 of DUI, according to Kenton County court records.

Kenton County Police Lt. Col. Ed Butler said Truster had a blood alcohol level of 0.345. The legal limit is 0.08. He said she had been drinking at a Nicholson bar before the wreck.

Butler said officers do not plan to arrest Truster until after she recovers from surgery scheduled today for injuries she received in the Aug. 17 crash. Truster's attorney, Don Nageleisen of Covington, said his client was severely injured. Both her legs were crushed, and she had to be flown by helicopter to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

Truster was driving a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder north on Ky. 16 when it crossed into oncoming traffic shortly after 10 p.m. near Senour Road and hit a 1993 Honda Accord and a 1999 Mercury Mystique, according to a police report.

The Kenton County coroner pronounced the driver of the Accord, Faith E. Hunter, dead at the scene. The driver of the Mystique was not injured.

Hunter, 22, of Independence was driving home from a church meeting in Newport. She had recently returned from her eighth ministerial trip to a Navajo Indian reservation in Gallup, N.M.

She was pursuing a major in elementary music education and was interested in pastoral teaching through music. She recorded religious albums with her pastor, Kenny Thacker of Covenant Christian Church in Newport.

"The Truster family would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the Hunter family," said Nageleisen. "It is an ongoing investigation, so I can't comment further."

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com