NJ nurse gets prison for drunk highway crash that killed 2 boys

🔴 NJ woman admits to wrong-way crash that killed 2 children

🔴 Driver was drunk, using phone at time, police say

🔴 She loses her nursing license in addition to prison term

A 33-year-old New Brunswick woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison for a drunken, wrong-way crash that killed two 9-year-old children — while also injuring two officers and a civilian in a police cruiser.

Yokauri Batista-Alcantara drove her Honda Accord the wrong way down an on-ramp in North Brunswick late Thanksgiving night in 2021, hitting an Old Bridge police cruiser, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone.

Investigators found that Batista-Alcantara was drunk and using her cell phone at the time of the crash, just before midnight in the southbound lane of Route 130 near the on-ramp to Route 1.

Other sources have identified the children as the driver's own young son and relative — while law enforcement have not confirmed those family relationships.

Deadly NJ crash in North Brunswick (Google Maps)

The Old Bridge police officers were taking an in-custody passenger to Middlesex County Jail in North Brunswick at the time of the crash on Nov. 25, 2021, Ciccone said.

Batista-Alcantara pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, three counts of third-degree assault-by-auto and one count driving while intoxicated.

The plea recommendation called for an aggregate sentence of 20 years.

On Aug. 16, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Bucca sentenced Batista-Alcantara to concurrent six-year prison terms for the counts of vehicular homicide, to be followed by a five year term for the counts of assault-by-auto.

North Brunswick Rts. 130 and 1(Google Maps)

🔴 Drunk driver’s son and nephew were killed in 2021 crash, school officials said

One of the children killed in the crash was identified as fourth grade student, Zion Barnes, by the principal of his elementary school in the Somerset section of Franklin Township.

Barnes was with his cousin when both were killed in the crash, according to a letter to the Hillcrest Elementary School community on Monday.

An online campaign briefly setup by the woman’s mother, Margarita Alcantara, said that the children killed in the crash were Batista-Alcantara's own son and her nephew. The campaign was removed and all money refunded as it was in violation of GoFundMe regulations.

Batista-Alcantara must serve 85% of her sentence — or just over nine years — before being eligible for parole.

She has permanently forfeited her license to practice as a registered nurse — while her driver’s license was suspended for five years, upon release from prison.

Upon release, Batista-Alcantara would also be on three years of parole supervision.

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