Pothead Princess Kayla Mendoza gets her just dues: 24 years in prison

‘2 drunk 2 care’ Mendoza killed 2 women.

By Raif Karerat

WASHINGTON, DC: The woman responsible for killing two women when she drove the wrong way on a Florida highway after tweeting that she was “2 drunk 2 care” has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to two DUI manslaughter charges.

Police reported Kayla Mendoza’s blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the normal limit when she killed Kaitlyn Ferrante and Marisa Catronio, according to the Associated Press. She also had traces of marijuana in her system.

“This all may be my fault, but at the end of the day, I’m a human being just like everyone else,” Mendoza, now 22, told the victims’ families, she told local news outlet WSVN. “I have a heart, and it aches every day. The guilt is overwhelming. I want to speak about this accident with everyone so that I can prevent this from ever happening again.”

On November 17, 2013, Mendoza, who was underage at the time, had been out drinking with co-workers, reported The Washington Post. She in the midst of her first semester of college, was studying to be a teacher, and working a sales job at T-Mobile. Court documents stated she imbibed two “fish bowl size” margaritas and drove her Hyundai Sonata, going the wrong way, head-on into Ferrante’s Toyota Camry in Broward County, just outside of Fort Lauderdale. She didn’t have a driver’s license, the Sun-Sentinel revealed.

Mendoza broke both of her legs and suffered head injuries after her Hyundai Sonata struck Ferrante’s Toyota Camry head-on in the westbound lanes of the Sawgrass Expressway near North University Drive, reported WSVN. Catronio died on the scene, while Ferrante died several days later at Broward Health North Medical Center.

Mendoza has said the controversial tweet — “2 drunk 2 care” — that she posted before the crash has been twisted. She asserted it wasn’t in reference to driving drunk; it was meant to grab her boyfriend’s attention because the two had recently been in an argument.

Other tweets made my Mendoza in the month leading up to the crash included “drunk,” “baked,” “rolling a blunt in the airport parking lot,” and “2 high 2 care.” She also referred herself a “pothead princess,” according to the Miami New Times.

Earlier this year, she admitted to the the two victims’ families the accident was her fault and beseeched them for forgiveness.

“One mistake changed all of our lives, one stupid mistake, and I’m sorry,” she said, per the Sun-Sentinel.

However, neither of the two families were remotely willing to forgive her.

“How do you forgive someone who ruined your life and your family’s life forever?” Catronio’s brother, Dustin Catronio, said in court during Mendoza’s sentencing, according to CBS Miami.

“You took away all those dreams,” Ferrante’s mother, Christine Ferrante, lamented. “You took the life of my precious daughter and you destroyed my family … My heart and soul are broken … I pass Kaitlyn’s room and it’s quiet and empty.”

WSVN revealed that along with her sentencing, Mendoza will never be allowed to drive a vehicle and on the anniversary of the accident, she is ordered to give $2 to charity — $1 in memory for each victim.

“This is just a process that we needed to go through but it doesn’t bring total closure to what happened,” said Gary Catronio, father to the victim.