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 Florida defense attorney was arrested in connection to a monthslong investigation into how illegal drugs were finding their way in to the county jail.

Nathan Williams, 37, was arrested on Jan. 5 and charged with eight felonies including two counts of giving drugs or controlled substances to an inmate. According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in a press conference held on Jan. 7, Williams allegedly conspired with inmates at the Duval County Jail and their family members to smuggle in “drug-soaked” paperwork that he claimed were legal documents.

“1000-lb Sisters” reality TV star Amy Slaton Halterman admitted to drug charges stemming from her arrest at a drive-through safari park in Tennessee, where deputies found her in a car with marijuana, mushrooms and her two kids after she called police to report a camel bit her.

As part of the plea deal, she and her co-defendant, Brian Scott Lovvorn, were sentenced on Thursday to two years probation, ordered to pay $1,000 and were barred from the Tennessee Safari Park. A felony marijuana charge was reduced to simple possession, and two child neglect charges were dismissed.

Argentine authorities have arrested three people in the death of singer Liam Payne, prosecutors announced. They did not name the suspects but said the charges relate to supplying the One Direction star the cocaine and abandoning him before his fatal fall from a third-story hotel in Buenos Aires.

The first suspect is a friend, who prosecutors say “accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city” but abandoned him before the fall. Prosecutors also allege that person supplied cocaine to Payne. If convicted, the person faces between five and 15 years in prison.

The second person is a Casa Sur Palermo Hotel employee who gave Payne drugs on two separate occasions, while the third person is a “drug supplier,” according to prosecutors. They are both charged with two counts each of supplying narcotics.

An 18-year-old man in Texas is accused of being under the influence of THC when he allegedly drove into oncoming traffic on a highway, plowing his pickup truck into a minivan, killing six of the seven passengers, all of whom were family members, one day after Christmas.

Luke Garrett Resecker appeared before Johnson County District Court Judge Sydney Hewlett on Tuesday, where he was arraigned on six counts of “intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle,” two counts of intoxication assault, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of marijuana, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

According to a news release from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the victims of the deadly Dec. 26 crash included: Rushil Barri, 28; Nageswararao Ponnada, 64; Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada, 60; Naveena Potabathula, 36; Krithik Potabathula, 10; and Nishidha Potabathula, 9.

The seventh victim, Lokesh Potabathula, 43, suffered severe injuries and was hospitalized in critical condition.

Court documents obtained by Dallas Fox affiliate KDFW reportedly said that authorities recovered THC wax, a THC vape pen, and marijuana from inside Resecker’s vehicle. A test of his blood reportedly came back positive for THC at the time of the tragic incident.

Following the horrific crash, a then-17-year-old Resecker was also admitted to the hospital in critical condition. A spokesperson for the Public Safety Department reportedly told The Dallas Morning News that due to Resecker’s injuries, he was deemed not “medically fit” to be brought to jail. A judge ordered that he be confined to his home and fitted with a GPS monitor. He later posted $50,000 bond to remain on home confinement.

A copy of the preliminary crash report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reportedly states that Resecker was traveling southwest on U.S. 67 in a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup when he veered over the double yellow line of the undivided highway and began driving into oncoming traffic traveling northeast.

The gray Honda Odyssey minivan carrying the passengers reportedly tried to swerve out of the way of Resecker’s Silverado, but the two vehicles struck each other head-on and abruptly came to a stop on the highway.

A passenger in Resecker’s car was reportedly not wearing a seat belt. Both of them were reportedly airlifted to local hospitals, along with the minivan’s lone survivor, Lokesh Potabathula, who was seated on the left side of the vehicle’s second row and also reportedly was not wearing a seat belt.

No passengers were ejected from either vehicle, officials reportedly said.

The victims were from India and visiting family in Texas at the time of the crash, the Star-Telegram reported. They were reportedly returning from visiting Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

The Texas Department of Safety did not respond to multiple calls and messages from Law&Crime seeking additional information regarding the crash.

 

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A 23-year-old man in New York will be going to prison after he called the police and unwittingly exposed his own Walter White-esque drug lab last year, which he had been falsely operating as a legitimate business.

Matthew Leshinsky pleaded guilty on Thursday to multiple drug charges, including unlawful manufacture of methamphetamine in the third degree, authorities announced.

“This defendant was operating a Breaking Bad-style drug lab and tried to conceal it under the guise of a legitimate business,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement. “He then inadvertently turned himself in when he reported that a burglary occurred at that same business.”

According to the DA’s office, Leshinsky called 911 at about 3:30 a.m. on June 7 to report a burglary in progress at his “purported business establishment, Quantitative Laboratories, LLC, in Ronkonkoma, New York.”

Once there, first responders saw “broken glass” at the entrance of what appeared to be a laboratory.

“While the officers continued investigating, they discovered what appeared to be a clandestine laboratory that was involved in the manufacture, production, and preparation of methamphetamine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a hallucinogenic substance, amongst other controlled substances,” the release states.