Report: Nassau mom initially told police she wasn't driving in crash that killed sons

The Nassau County mother accused of drinking and driving before deadly car crash initially told authorities she wasn’t driving, a report released by the Florida Highway Patrol says.

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FHP says Tonya Capallia-Eason was driving a 2002 Ford Exhibition with eight children inside on Oct. 22 when the vehicle flipped, killing her two sons.

According to the FHP, Capallia-Eason was leaving a Nassau County Halloween party when friends begged her not to drive. A 911 caller named “Jessica” tearfully told the dispatcher that Capallia-Eason had been drinking.

Capallia-Eason’s Ford struck a light pole, flipped and eventually came to rest on its roof. Her sons Nicholai, 9, and Nehemiah, 8, were killed.

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Capallia-Eason initially told authorities she tried to assist the driver when the vehicle struck the pole and rolled over. Capallia-Eason was trapped upside down in the vehicle, the FHP said. The report noted that Capallia-Eason was the actual driver.

Her blood alcohol level was eventually determined to be .148, almost twice the legal limit in Florida.

An investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families testified in court that she interviewed Capallia-Eason in the hospital and that Capallia-Eason had admitted drinking "two drinks, two shots and three or four pudding shots" before driving off with the children.

The crash also injured Capallia-Eason’s 7-year-old daughter Nina.

Five days after the crash, Andrew Bird, the children’s father, was granted sole custody of their surviving child.

Bird buried his sons near his home in Michigan.

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