HOLLAND, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – A 31-year-old west Michigan woman will spend up to five years in prison for a car crash into an icy pond which killed her three young sons in February 2022.

Leticia Gonzales pleaded no contest in August to operating while intoxicated causing serious injury, and three misdemeanor charges of a moving violation causing death. Ottawa County police said Gonzales veered off the side of the road, jumped a curve, and rolled into an ice-covered retention pond. Her sons, Jerome III, 4, Jeremiah, 3, and Josiah, 1, drowned while strapped into child-restraint seats.

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Gonzales escaped with minor injuries. Police allege she was impaired by two doses of methadone, a medication used to treat drug addiction and pain relief.

Gonzales told the court she’s been living with survivor’s guilt since her sons’ deaths.

“I lost everything I ever needed and I hate myself so much. I’ve been sentenced to life without them for the rest of my life, so I’m asking for forgiveness,” she said.

Circuit Court Judge Jon Hulsing said Gonzales may feel remorse but this was not her first time using drugs. He called her behavior “a pattern” in which her children paid the ultimate price.