New Brunswick Woman Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison For Crash That Killed Franklin Youth

A 33-year-old New Brunswick woman was recently sentenced to 11 years in state prison for a wrong-way fatal car crash that killed two children, including a boy from Franklin Township.

Yokauri Batista-Alcantara was sentenced on August 16 by Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca. She will have to serve at least six years before she is eligible for parole, according to a press release from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

On Thanksgiving night of 2021, Batista-Alcantara drove her car the wrong way on Route 130 in North Brunswick when it struck head-on an Old Bridge Police patrol car, according to the release.

Two Old Bridge police officers were transporting a prisoner to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick at the time of the accident, according to the release.

Police arriving at the scene found Batista-Alcantara and the two children, all of whom were transported to a local hospital. The children were later pronounced dead, according to the release.

The boy, who the Franklin Reporter declined to name at the request of his parents, was a Hillcrest Elementary School student.

An investigation revealed that Batista-Alcantara was driving under the influence of alcohol and was using her cell phone at the time of the accident, according to the release.

Batista-Alcantara pled guilty to to two counts of 2nd Degree Vehicular Homicide for the deaths of the two children in her vehicle as well as three counts of 3rd Degree Assault-by-Auto for the serious injuries caused to all occupants of the police vehicle as well as one count of Driving While Intoxicated.

Judge Bucca sentenced Batista-Alcantara to a concurrent six-year prison term for the two counts of Vehicular Homicide, consecutive to an aggregate five-year prison term for three counts of Assault-by-Auto, for a total of 11 years in state prison, with the first six years pursuant to the No Early Release Act, according to the release.

Batista-Alcantara must serve 85 percent of her sentence before being eligible for parole, has permanently forfeited her license to practice as a registered nurse, and received a five-year driver’s license suspension, pending her release from prison, according to the release.

She will also be on parole for three years after release, according to authorities.

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