PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 22-year-old Norristown man has been charged in last month’s deadly car crash in Upper Merion Township that killed his girlfriend and her young daughter.
Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez is charged with two counts of homicide by vehicle for the Jan. 13 crash. According to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Gonzalez-Paez was in the car with his girlfriend, 20-year-old Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, and her 3-year-old daughter.
Gonzalez-Paez was driving when he lost control and hit a tree on Valley Forge Park Road. Police said he was driving between 70 and 80 mph in a 35 mph speed zone.
“The conditions on that night, and it was after 1 a.m., heavy rain,” said District Attorney Kevin Steele. “It was difficult to drive in at the speed limit, and this individual decided to drive at double the speed limit.”
When police arrived, Gonzalez-Paez had removed the unresponsive 3-year-old from the car. Briceno was trapped and unresponsive in the passenger seat. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her daughter was pronounced dead at CHOP.
Investigators said the mother and daughter were not wearing seat belts. There wasn’t a child seat in the car either.
Steele said this all could have been avoided. The car wasn’t properly registered to Gonzalez-Paez, officials said, nor did he have a valid driver’s license. He told officers that he bought the car from someone in Norristown but never received the title.
“He should have never been on the road,” Steele added. “It was a person that should not have been behind the wheel because he didn’t have a license, he didn’t have insurance, and he was driving at a very, very high rate of speed — double the speed limit in rainy conditions.”
Gonzales-Paez is also charged with accidents involving death while not properly licensed, reckless driving, driving without a license, and other offenses. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 14.