ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A little over a year after a serious single-car crash killed two teens, the mother of an unlicensed teen driver charged with their death pleaded guilty to allowing her unlicensed daughter to get behind the wheel.
"It's a lot of grief, a lot of suffering. It's a lot of wondering why and not understanding," Alfrieda Lewis said.
Lewis lost her 18-year-old son Brice Lewis in the crash. He was a passenger in the car like 14-year-old Shaariyah Brown. Lewis was killed on impact, Brown died at the hospital.
"She was the life of my life," her mother Michelle Roberts said.
Their loving kids were killed on Aug. 6, 2022. Nikia Killens was the 17-year-old driver arrested and charged with two felony counts of driving without a license causing death. St. Petersburg Police say her mother, Eloda Hogan, gave her the keys to the car that night.
"We decided to become a sisterhood on this situation. This should never happen. It's not right," Lewis said.
Both families have been in court several times since the crash and saw Hogan and her daughter in court but always left disappointed. Wednesday morning, Hogan pleaded guilty to allowing an unauthorized person to drive.
"It's justice and closure. It's accountability. It needed to happen. Nobody's ever apologized to us. Now we can heal. It starts here. We received a lot of closure today," Lewis said.
Still, both mothers continue to fight for stricter penalties against unlicensed teen driving. They're waiting to follow through on Nikia Killens' case.
"It doesn't stop the today. I want people to know that if you're not licensed, you shouldn't be driving," Roberts said.
Killens is scheduled to be in court next Thursday, Oct. 12. When it comes to Hogan, the judge handed down the maximum sentence and she'll serve 60 days in jail.