FILE This is undated file photo provided by the

Polk County, Iowa, Jail shows Nicole Poole Franklin, 

who said she drove her SUV into two
children in 2019 to try to kill

Racist Iowa woman who tried to run over 2 kids sentenced to 25 years in prison

By Edward Era Barbacena

A white Iowa woman who attacked two children, a 12-year-old Black boy and a 14-year-old Latina girl, with her car in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in federal prison.

Nicole Poole Franklin, 43, had pleaded guilty to both federal hate crime charges and state attempted murder charges.

On Dec. 9, 2019, the 12-year-old boy was walking with his older sibling when Franklin hopped the curb in her car and tried to run him over. The boy suffered minor injuries.

This is undated file photo provided by the Polk County, Iowa, Jail shows Nicole Poole Franklin. (Polk County Jail via AP, File)

Franklin said she thought the child was an ISIS terrorist out to get her.

Less than an hour later, Franklin launched another attack, this time on the 14-year-old girl, who was walking to a basketball game. The girl suffered serious injuries, including a concussion, according to police.

Franklin said she thought the girl was a Mexican who “wasn’t supposed to be in the country,” and was taking “our homes, our jobs.”

Police said Franklin fled both scenes and went to a convenience store, where she launched into a racist tirade against two Black men. She was not charged with a crime for the tirade.

“Holding Poole Franklin accountable, not only for her intentional actions, but for the malicious beliefs behind them, is what our justice system should be, and a must to provide just punishment, afford adequate deterrence, and protect the public from further crimes by this defendant,” prosecutors wrote.

Poole Franklin's public defender asked Rose for nothing longer than a 27-year term. He argued in a filing that she was suffering from “severe pre-existing mental illnesses that were exacerbated by methamphetamine use, numerous extremely difficult life events hitting at nearly the same time, and with some of the worst aspects of the culture acting behind the scenes and further poisoning her mental state.

Before the hate crimes, Poole Franklin had received a series of breaks from the legal system, including after she allegedly stabbed a boyfriend in the chest in 2017 and threatened another with a butcher's knife months later.

Franklin admitted to both attacks and was sentenced in May on the state charges, getting at least 17½ years in prison, the Associated Press reported.. She’ll serve her 25-year federal sentence concurrently, and she will not be eligible for parole.