Middletown Mourns Teen Killed In Alleged DUI

BELFORD, NJ — She had just graduated from high school this past June. She was a former Pop Warner cheerleader.

And on Nov. 26, prosecutors say Nicole Smith, 18, was killed in a drunk driving car crash on the Garden State Parkway. Smith was from the Belford section of Middletown. Tragically, a fellow young Middletown woman was at the wheel; prosecutors say Kimberly Franklin, 20, was intoxicated at the time of the 1:30 a.m. crash. She was also critically injured.

And a third woman from Middletown, Isabella Rosales, 20, sitting in the back seat, was seriously injured as well.

Both Smith and Rosales were ejected from the Dodge Charger when it struck a guard rail and then a tree on the Parkway southbound in Woodbridge Twp. Franklin remained inside the car, seriously injured. Both she and Rosales were rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center in New Brunswick.

Smith, however, was pronounced dead at the scene. She had just graduated from Middletown High School North this past June, according to her obituary.

"We sat at the same lunch table for almost two years," said Middletown North classmate Gabriella (last name not given). "She was a very happy and outgoing girl. She was definitely loved by many."

Nicole had been very active in the Middletown Pop Warner cheerleader program for many years and traveled all over for cheer competitions. Both her parents, Christine Medvar and Michael Smith, died before her and Nicole was living with her maternal grandparents, Francis and Linda Medvar.

Nicole's friends, many of them Middletown high school students, seemed to be mostly in shock, judging by a tribute page set up in her honor on Facebook.

"You were taken way too early!," wrote one friend.

"Nicole, this isn't real. I was just talking to you hours ago," wrote another. "Please come home, please tell me this isn’t real. I love you so much ... please come home."

A viewing was held for Nicole on Saturday, from 3-6 at Scott & Kedz Home for Funerals, 153 Church St., Belford, with funeral services Saturday evening.

Franklin was scheduled for her initial appearance in New Brunswick Superior Court this past Thursday, Dec. 6.

Photos used with permission from the funeral home.