A man was charged in a crash that killed his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, officials said.
Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez, 22, of Norristown, was arrested and charged with homicide by vehicle, accidents involving death while not properly licensed and other related offenses in connection to a crash that killed his girlfriend Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, 20, and her 3-year-old daughter in Upper Merion Township in January.
On Jan. 13, shortly after 1 a.m., Upper Merion Township Police responded to a report of a crash on Valley Forge Park Road west of County Line Road. When they arrived they found a 2007 gray Toyota Yaris that had struck a tree. The driver – identified by investigators as Gonzalez-Paez—was outside the car and had removed an unresponsive 3-year-old girl from the vehicle. Briceno, the child’s mother, was trapped and unresponsive in the front passenger seat.
The child was taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s King of Prussia location where she was later pronounced dead. Briceno was extricated by medics and pronounced dead at the scene.
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Investigators determined Gonzalez-Paez was driving eastbound on Valley Forge Park Road between 70 mph and 80 mph in a 35-mph zone during heavy rain prior to the crash. Gonzalez-Paez lost control of the vehicle and drove off the right side of the road onto a grassy area, police said. The vehicle traveled 74 feet across the grass before the passenger side door struck a tree.
Investigators determined there were no mechanical issues that led to the crash, the airbags had been deployed, the seatbelts were all fastened and there was no child car seat in the vehicle.
Police said the vehicle was not registered to Gonzalez-Paez who told investigators he had bought the car from someone in Norristown and had never transferred the paperwork, according to the affidavit of probable cause. The vehicle was also not insured and Gonzalez-Paez did not have a valid driver’s license, investigators said.
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Gonzalez-Paez told investigators he was picking up an order for the delivery service DoorDash at the time of the crash and that another car “came out of nowhere” from behind him, causing him to lose control, according to the affidavit. He also said that while he was wearing a seatbelt at the time, neither his girlfriend nor her daughter were wearing theirs and there was no car seat for the girl.
A representative from DoorDash told investigators that she located the request for pickup that Gonzalez-Paez referred to but the request was never filled, according to the affidavit. The representative also said that neither Gonzalez-Paez nor his girlfriend were the listed Dasher on the account. The representative also said that Gonzalez-Paez would not have been allowed to work for DoorDash since he didn’t have a valid driver’s license.
Gonzalez-Paez was arrested on Feb. 6 and charged. He was arraigned with bail set at $99,077 and remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. Investigators also said Gonzalez-Paez is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and is awaiting a deportation hearing with Homeland Security.
