Shantel Lynn Witt, who was convicted of driving while high on her dog’s Xanax and killing a cyclist in 2017, is attempting to change her name.

On June 21, Witt, 45, asked a Multnomah Circuit Court judge to approve her request to change her name to Shantel Lynn Olsen, her name before she married.

Witt is currently an inmate of the state women’s prison, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, having been convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

In September, Witt’s husband since 1994, Kelly Witt, filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

The divorce case is still pending. Shantel Witt has not acknowledged it, according to court records. That hasn’t stopped her from seeking a name change, which can typically be rolled into a divorce filings for no additional cost.

Parties seeking name changes independent of a divorce typically must go before a judge, where they’ll be asked about their motivations. Judges typically disqualify applicants for fraudulent or deceptive purposes.

On Dec. 30, 2017, Witt was driving on Dodds Road east of Bend while intoxicated on a combination of prescribed and nonprescribed medications when she drove her GMC Sierra into Marika Stone, 38, a Bend dentist and mother of two. After hitting Stone, Witt got out of her truck and swore at two other cyclists who were there.

Retired Judge A. Michael Adler determined Witt acted with “extreme indifference” in the death of Stone, who ran her own practice, Mill Point Dental.

Stone’s husband, Jerry, filed a $34.5 million lawsuit naming Witt and also, in a novel legal move, the doctors and health providers said to have overprescribed Witt for years.

Last June, retired Judge Jack L. Landau dismissed the deep-pocketed parties from the suit, leaving Witt as the lone defendant. Landau held the other parties had too indefinite a duty to Marika Stone.

Jerry Stone’s lawsuit was paused as he appealed Landau’s decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Shantel Witt is also appealing her criminal case.

Following her sentencing, she served nearly a year of her sentence in the Deschutes County jail, most of it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Witt’s earliest date of release is Oct. 29, 2030.