New Brunswick mother pleads guilty in drunken crash that killed two children
NEW BRUNSWICK – A New Brunswick woman trembled and struggled to keep her composure before pleading guilty Monday to a Thanksgiving night 2021 wrong-way crash in which two 9-year-old boys were killed, including her son, and three others were injured.
During questioning by her attorney before Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca, Yokauri Batista-Alcantara admitted that on Nov. 25, 2021, she was at a family holiday gathering in North Brunswick where she had consumed an alcoholic punch before leaving with her son and her nephew in the car.
When she left, 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.
"And you were going home?" her attorney Steven Altman asked.
"Yes," Batista-Alcantara responded.
She made the left turn 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. She 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.
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More than an hour later, her blood was drawn at the hospital and her blood alcohol concentration was .145, above New Jersey's legal limit of .08 for driving.
"And you are guilty of driving under the influence, is that correct?" Altman asked.
"Yes," Batista-Alcantara answered.
Altman said the three people in the police vehicle suffered serious injuries; one suffered head disfigurement, another a wrist injury and the third a leg injury which impairs his ability to walk.
"Also in the car with you was your nephew and your son, and as a result of this accident would you agree with me that you recklessly caused the death of M.J.?" Altman asked.
“Yes," Batista-Alcantara said through tears.
Altman asked Batista-Alcantara if she was also taking responsibility for causing the death of a child identified as C.B.
"Yes," she said before wiping tears from her face.
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In a courtroom filled with several others who cried and wiped tears during the 16-minute hearing, 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.
Judge Bucca said the state, represented by Assistant Prosecutor Keith Abrams, will move to dismiss the remaining criminal charges and motor vehicle violations, at sentencing.
Under the plea agreement, the state is requesting 15 to 20 years in state prison on the vehicular homicide charges under the No Early Release Act which means Batista-Alcantara will have to serve 85 percent of the term before becoming eligible for parole. Sentences on the other counts would run concurrent, Bucca said.
Batista-Alcantara also will lose her driver’s license for at least five years and is facing fines.
Batista-Alcantara was initially charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter, a first-degree crime; two counts of vehicular homicide, a second-degree crime; two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a second-degree crime; two counts of aggravated assault and one count of assault by auto, fourth-degree crimes.
Around 11:53 p.m. on that Thanksgiving night, Old Bridge police officers, identified by the initials of M.W. and J.P., 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.
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.
Batista-Alcantara is not a U.S. citizen, and she was advised by the judge that her guilty plea could result in her removal from the country and being barred from re-entering the U.S.
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: New Brunswick mom pleads guilty in drunken crash that killed two kids
