Woman Who Didn’t Know How To Drive Gets 5 Years In Hit-And-Run

OMAHA, NE — An Omaha woman who didn’t have a driver’s license or know how to drive was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison in a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian in May. In what was described as a disastrous scheme to escape her abusive boyfriend, Nickole Wheeler, 33, used a fake ID to steal a sports utility vehicle from an Omaha used car dealership, then fled the scene on foot after the SUV veered onto a sidewalk and struck Ruben Batres, 48.

Wheeler must serve at least two and one-half years of the sentence under Nebraska law, which cuts most sentences in half. She had been convicted of leaving the scene of a fatality, auto theft and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide.

Before Wheeler was sentenced, Assistant Public Defender April Lucas painted a sad picture of her client’s life. She had struggled in school with learning disabilities and her abusive parents died when she was a young adult. She struggled with methamphetamine and was easily manipulated, the attorney said.

Wheeler’s choices were limited on May 25, the day Batres was killed, Lucas said, according to a report by television station KETV. She could either stay with her abusive boyfriend, or go along with a plot hatched by two friends who said they would pay her to test drive the SUV and turn it over to them. Wheeler safely drove to a gas station, where she planned to follow another individual’s vehicle to another location, but the SUV struck Batres and crashed.

Lucas said Wheeler now regrets the decision to go along with the plan.

“When Ms. Wheeler woke up that morning, she had no intentions, no thought in her mind, that this was going to happen to her or anyone else,” Lucas said, according to an Omaha World Herald report.

But Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said that was just an excuse.

“Certainly, she knew the difference between right and wrong at the time she did what she did,” Kleine said, according to a report by television station KETV. “And she knew the consequences of her actions. Here her actions led to an individual’s death.”

Prosecutor Ryan Lindberg said Wheeler showed no regard for Batres’ well-being.

“The minimum we ask of people is to stick around, check on them, make sure they’re OK,” Lindberg said.
When Wheeler fled on foot after striking Batres, several good Samaritans chased her, including one who offered to drive her away from the scene. Instead, he took her back, where she was arrested.

Batres’ family is devastated by his death and is struggling financially to ship his remains home to Guatemala for a proper burial.

“This has caused a significant hardship for them — the financial loss to try to get his body home,” Lindberg said. “Ultimately this is all the result of the decisions the defendant made that day.”

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