Woman gets 24 years for fatal crash after drunk tweet


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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman who tweeted about being drunk minutes before a fatal wrong-way crash has been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

A Broward County judge also ordered 22-year-old Kayla Mendoza to remain on probation for six years after her release. Mendoza pleaded guilty in February to two DUI manslaughter charges in the November 2013 crash that killed Kaitlyn Ferrante and Marisa Catronio, both 21.

Evidence showed that Mendoza tweeted "2 drunk 2 care" before the Sawgrass Expressway crash. Authorities later said her blood-alcohol level was almost twice Florida's legal limit. Police say she had been out drinking with co-workers prior to the crash.

Mendoza had faced a maximum of 30 years behind bars.

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