A Florida minister allegedly killed a mother and seriously injured three of her children — ages 4, 6 and 15 — in a wrong-way car crash just six hours after he was released from jail for a DUI arrest, cops say.

Nicholas Betancourt, 33, is facing nearly a dozen charges, including DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, for the Feb. 27 crash in Odessa that took the life of Dana Maria Rivera, 36, and left three of her children hospitalized, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. The mother-of-four was driving southbound on Gunn Highway near Dolce Vita Lane when Betancourt, who was driving a Chrysler Pacifica minivan, allegedly drifted over from the northbound lane and slammed into her Lincoln Town car.

Police say Betancourt, who was arrested on Thursday, was “on the nod” after the crash occurred, according to a motion filed by prosecutors for pretrial detention, with deputies who responded saying he appeared intoxicated.

“Deputy Garcia made contact with Defendant on scene and observed the defendant to be ‘on the nod’ with his head falling down and his eyes droopy,” the motion said. “Dash camera footage recovered shows the Pacifica operated by Defendant leaving its lane of travel and entering into the lane of travel for the Town Car at the time of the crash.”

A twisted TikTok prank, in which a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old from Texas followed elementary school students home from school and asked if they “wanted to be kidnapped,” has landed the two teens behind bars on charges of making terroristic threats, police say.

Kaine Villareal and Lane Burch, both of Kyle, were caught Wednesday following a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old as they walked home from Negley Elementary School that afternoon at around 3:20 p.m., according to the Kyle Police Department.

The pair approached the two kids and asked if they “wanted to be kidnapped” as part of a “prank” for social media, according to police.

A 37-year-old mother from Iowa is accused of framing her husband for shooting her and later abandoning her two young children, one of whom has special medical needs, on the side of a “busy” street, telling them that “nobody loved them.”

Heather Ann Perez Miranda was arrested in Linn County and is currently facing two counts of neglect or abandonment of a dependent, two counts of child endangerment, one count of domestic abuse assault, and one count of false reporting of an indictable offense, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

The two children Perez Miranda allegedly abandoned in Hiawatha, which is about 120 miles east of Des Moines, were 6 and 8 years old, according to a report from the Kansas City Star. The older child reportedly has a “congenital deformity to her mouth/jaw area” and had undergone a tracheostomy that left her unable to care for herself.

While the victims were reportedly not Perez Miranda’s biological children, she does share four other children with the victims’ father, who is also the man she is accused of trying to frame. Those four children were reportedly in the car with Perez Miranda when she allegedly abandoned the two victims.

According to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI, officers with the Hiawatha Police Department on June 30, 2024, responded to a call regarding two young children who were unattended on the roadside around the 4000 bock of Tower Terrace Road.

A 42-year-old mother in Florida accused of leaving her 3-year-old fraternal twins to die in the back seat of a car atop an interstate overpass before trying to kill herself by leaping to her death has been arrested over the tragic ordeal, which authorities said she had been planning for months.

Shirlene N. Alcime was formally charged this week with two counts of child neglect resulting in great bodily harm in the deaths of Milendhet and Milendhere Napoleon-Cadet, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, officers with the Miami-Dade Police Department responded to a call at about 2 a.m. on Friday from a passerby who told the emergency dispatcher that they had found two children unresponsive.

“Upon the officers’ arrival, the female that was accompanying the children jumped over the expressway wall, fell from a considerable height, and landed on the railroad tracks,” police said in the release. “Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and transported the toddlers to an area hospital and the female to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition. Despite their efforts to save them, medical personnel pronounced both children deceased.”

Authorities said that a pending autopsy would determine the manner and cause of death for the two children. However, after Alcime was formally charged, she appeared in court for a bond hearing where a judge said that the evidence collected thus far indicated that Alcime was likely to be charged with murdering her children.

“I am holding you with no bond on count one, for the child abuse, count two for child abuse, although I think there may be a probable cause for murder as well, but that’s up to the state to file that charge,” Florida Circuit Court Judge Mindy S. Glazer said during Friday’s hearing, per courtroom footage posted online by Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ. “That arrest affidavit, it looks like you killed your children, and you then tried to kill yourself, so that’s why there may be probable cause for different charges, but it’s up to the state’s attorney.”