Tampa, Fla. ? The sobbing mother of two young boys killed in a hit-and-run accident last year urged a judge Friday to sentence the driver, an elementary school dance teacher, to the maximum three years in prison.

Malissa Wilkins said Jennifer Porter, 29, should be punished for not stopping after hitting her two sons, Bryant Wilkins, 13, and his 3-year-old brother, Durantae Caldwell, as they crossed the street with their siblings from a park. An 8-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother were injured.

“No matter what we do in this courtroom, it doesn’t matter because my kids are gone,” Wilkins said, “Let my kids rest in peace.”

Porter’s attorney, Barry Cohen, told the judge that his client’s “brain shut down” after the accident, and she was scared to stop.

He is asking that she be sentenced to probation.

Michael Gamache, a forensic psychologist called by Cohen, said Porter’s history of panic attacks led her to leave the scene of the accident. “In my opinion, that is what predisposed her to react in this way,” Gamache said.

The marathon sentencing hearing, which began Friday morning, continued late into the night with Judge Emmett Lamar Battles urging attorneys to be brief.

Porter is white and her victims were black, and some in the black community say she has been treated leniently because of her race and economic background.