A California mom of six was on her way home from visiting her premature newborn twin girls in the hospital when she was hit and killed by a drunk driver, the Daily Mail reports.
Twenty-one-year-old Alexis Cina was reportedly three times over the legal limit when she crossed over the center median and slammed into 37-year-old Katie Evans’ car on Oct. 6.
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Evans had given birth to twin girls Sarah and Hannah, who were born 12 weeks premature, in August. She leaves behind her husband Jacob and their other children: 12-year-old Spencer, 11-year-old Travis, 9-year-old Nathaniel and 2-year-old Gideon.
Evans was reportedly ejected from the car during the crash and first responders pronounced her dead on the scene.
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Cina was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving at the scene of the crash and had a blood alcohol content of .21, three times the legal limit of .08, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department.
Cina was charged with felony vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence, causing injury on Oct. 18.
Katie Evans’ husband, Jacob, told PEOPLE that Katie had struggled with getting pregnant this final time.
“She had a total of three miscarriages. I’m fairly sure that we would not have tried again if this pregnancy had ended in miscarriage,” he said. “Katie and I are pretty old to be having more children and we thought perhaps we were done.”
But she was overjoyed to discover she was pregnant with twin girls, and she spent as much time as possible with them in the hospital when they were delivered premature.
“She waited 15 years for these girls,” Jacob said. “They were incredibly precious to her.”
Jacob said when he didn’t hear from his wife a few hours after she called and said she was on her way home, he set out looking for her.
“The last time I spoke to Katie was 11 o’ clock that night,” Jacob said. “She called me to let me know that she was going to be coming home … the hours between 2:30 [a.m.] and 5:30 [a.m.] were the longest of my life.”
He retraced her steps in his car and stumbled upon the crash where he learned his wife had been involved in an accident.
“I called the hospital and she hadn’t been admitted so I was pretty sure that she hadn’t made it,” Jacob said, adding that a coroner came to his house and confirmed the death around 5:30 a.m.
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Jacobs’ sister, Natalie Mortensen, set up a crowdsourcing YouCaring page to help Jacob raise his six children on his own.
“She was a devoted mother, sister and wife and will be immensely missed. Jacob is left to care for 6 kids by himself. There will be many childcare costs as well as unforeseen expenses,” Mortensen wrote on the website.
The initial goal was set at $100,000 but has since been raised to $500,000. At press time it had raised over $300,000.
Photo Credit: YouCaring
