'My babies didn't deserve this': NJ woman sentenced for drunken crash that killed two boys

NEW BRUNSWICK – There isn’t a day that goes by for Yokauri Batista-Alcantara that she doesn't think about the victims and the pain she’s caused them and their families, including her own.

"I want each of you to know there is absolutely nothing in this world that I would not do to change this horrible outcome for everyone involved," Batista-Alcantara said through tears Wednesday. "To know that I am responsible for two innocent children losing their lives is something that will stay in my conscious for a lifetime. There is absolutely no excuse for what I have done, and I want each of you to know that I feel it with each breath that I take."

Batista-Alcantara said she would have easily traded her life so the boys could live.

On Thanksgiving night 2021, Batista-Alcantara, now 33, of New Brunswick, drove the wrong way on Route 130 in North Brunswick, causing a drunken crash that killed two 9-year-old boys, her son and her nephew, and injured two Old Bridge police officers and their passenger in the head-on collision.

Batista-Alcantara was sentenced Wednesday by Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca to six years in state prison, of which she must serve 85 percent under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, for the vehicular homicide of her son, Noel, and her nephew, Zion, and a five-year consecutive term for assault by auto charges that has prevented 30-year-old Old Bridge Police Officer John Prudhomme from returning to a law enforcement career.

Batista-Alcantara also was sentenced to concurrent four-year state prison terms for assault by auto charges related injuries suffered by Old Bridge Officer Michael Walsh and the officers’ passenger. Bucca also ordered that Batista-Alcantara's driver's license be suspended for five years upon her release and set several fines

The sentence was much less than the 20-year prison term and 25-year loss of license Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Keith Abrams sought. While Abrams acknowledged Batista-Alcantara was a mother who had lost a child and had led a law-abiding productive life, he questioned how she could seatbelt two children in her car, use her phone GPS and drive the wrong way on the wrong side of the road, traveling about 50 mph, before crashing head-on with the Old Bridge police vehicle.

"This goes beyond your average drunk-driving crash. The choices the defendant made are not accidents. These are not accidents but reckless choices that kill people," Abrams said.

Steven Altman, Batista-Alcantara's attorney, said his client, a nurse who formerly worked in the emergency room at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick as well as at a Franklin Township nursing home, made a "terrible mistake," but already is facing the worst punishment in the loss of her child.

"The pain she has can't be consoled in a jail cell. This pain is the ultimate sentence," Batista-Alcantara's mother, Margarita Alcantara, said in a statement read by a relative, as the mother sat crying throughout the proceeding while listening to an interpreter.

In February when Batista-Alcantara pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide, a second-degree crime, and three counts of assault by auto, a third-degree crime, as well as driving under the influence of alcohol, she said she was at a family Thanksgiving gathering in North Brunswick on Nov. 25, 2021, where she consumed an alcoholic punch before leaving with her son and her nephew in the car to head home to New Brunswick. She drove to the intersection of Route 130 and Independence Boulevard in North Brunswick where she stopped at the light to make a left turn.

She made the left and ended up traveling northbound in the southbound lane of Route 130 where she continued for a short time before realizing she was going the wrong way. She admitted it was reckless to make the left turn onto Route 130 because of alcohol she had consumed and also admitted to striking head-on an Old Bridge police vehicle carrying two police officers and a prisoner going to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center.

She also said she was guilty of driving under the influence. When her blood was drawn at the hospital more than hour after the crash, her blood alcohol concentration was .145, above New Jersey's legal limit of .08 for driving.

During her sentencing, Batista-Alcantara extended apologies to the officers and their passenger and said she never meant to hurt anyone in the patrol vehicle or alter their lives.

"I truly am devastated for all the pain and suffering I have caused you and your families," she said, adding she wishes she would have suffered all their injuries so they could have walked away from the crash unharmed.

"That night my judgement was extremely poor, my behavior was reckless, and my actions were careless. I should have never been behind the wheel and because of those choices not only did I hurt the three of you, but I also lost two of the most important people in my life," she said.

Batista-Alcantara apologized to her nephew's parents, adding she would have never let him into her car if she didn't think he would get home safe. She said her nephew was like a son to her.

Aniera Searight, Batista-Alcantara's sister-in-law and Zion's mother, said she believes the crash was an accident. She said she's been angry, hurt and cried many nights, but there has not been one time she didn't feel Batista-Alcantara's remorse.

Delores Jennings, Noel's grandmother and Zion's aunt, said if the boys were here, they would say it was a true accident and they would fight for Batista-Alcantara too.

But Zion's aunt, the sister of the boy's father, said as a nurse Batista-Alcantara, had knowledge about the effects of drinking and driving and wishes she had called an Uber.

Appearing via Zoom, Old Bridge Officer Michael Walsh, who suffered slight concussion, a wrist injury and neck, back and hip pain in the crash in which he was the driver, said he relives the accident and while he was able to return to work, his partner was not.

Batista-Alcantara openly expressed her own grief at the loss of her son, who she called her best friend, and the one person who would have loved her for a lifetime.

"I let him down. My babies didn't deserve this. I am the one person they should have been safe with, and I failed them," she said. "Drinking and driving is never OK."

Around 11:53 p.m. on Thanksgiving night 2021, Old Bridge Police Officers Walsh and Prudhomme were taking an in-custody passenger on the ramp to Route 130 southbound to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center.

At the same time, North Brunswick police received a 911 call of a car traveling in the wrong direction on Route 130. The caller said he honked his horn and flashed his lights at Batista-Alcantara, but the speed of her vehicle only increased before the crash.

North Brunswick police were then alerted to a crash involving the Old Bridge police vehicle and when officers arrived, they found a two-vehicle crash involving the Old Bridge Chevrolet Tahoe and a Honda Accord with both vehicles sustaining heavy front-end damage consistent with a head-on crash.

The Accord had three occupants, Batista-Alcantara and two boys. Batista-Alcantara and the boys were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick where both children died. The two officers and their passenger also were taken to the hospital after suffering serious injuries, one suffered a head disfigurement, another a wrist injury and the third a leg injury which impairs his ability to walk.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ woman sentenced for drunken Thanksgiving crash that killed two boys