An Iowa woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal hate crime charges after telling cops in 2019 that she purposely ran over a girl because she “was a Mexican.”
According to CNN, Nicole Marie Poole Franklin had been involved in three separate racist incidents back in December of 2019.
Two different police departments were investigating Franklin’s involvement in the racist acts.
The Des Moines Police Department had footage of Franklin intentionally running over the leg of a 12-year-old black child before fleeing.
The boy had been walking along the curb of an apartment complex’s parking lot when Franklin’s SUV jumped the curb, ran over his leg, and took off, police reported.
A witness told cops the SUV “gunned its engine” before hitting the child.
Less than an hour later, Franklin ran over 14-year-old Natalia Miranda as she walked to a basketball game. When she was apprehended, Franklin told cops she hit the girl because she “was a Mexican” and also “made a series of derogatory statements about Latinos.”
Franklin pleaded guilty to two counts of hate crime acts. The charges describe that she “willfully caused bodily injury to Minor Victim #1. Acted because of Minor Victim #1’s actual or perceived race, color, religion or national origin,” according to the plea agreement filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
The same charges were brought against her for the 12-year-old boy as well.
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