Driver enters not guilty pleas in double-fatal crash near park
DA: Uninsured, unlicensed illegal immigrant was speeding and driving recklessly in rain
A Norristown man entered not guilty pleas to charges he was speeding and driving recklessly in heavy rain when he caused a single-vehicle crash in Upper Merion Township that killed his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter who were passengers and unrestrained in the vehicle.
Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez, 22, of the 600 block of West Main Street, waived his arraignment hearing and entered the not guilty pleas in Montgomery County Court to charges of homicide by vehicle, accidents involving death or personal injury while not properly licensed, reckless driving, driving without a license, driving without insurance, speeding, and driving without proper restraint systems in connection with the Jan. 13, 2024, crash along Valley Forge Road in Upper Merion that claimed the lives of his girlfriend, Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, 20, and her 3-year-old daughter.
The case has been assigned to Judge Steven T. O’Neill who will set a trial date.
Gonzalez-Paez, who is represented by defense lawyer Scott Frame, remains in the county jail in lieu of $99,077 bail.
The investigation began about 1:14 a.m. Jan. 13, when Upper Merion police responded to a report of a crash with injuries that involved a single vehicle, a Toyota Yaris, that struck a tree on Valley Forge Park Road about 1,000 feet west of County Line Road, according to the criminal complaint filed by Upper Merion Police Officer Daniel Mease and County Detective David Schanes.
“It was reported that there were injuries and that at least two people were trapped in the vehicle and unresponsive. One of the trapped people was a child,” Mease and Schanes wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Police said the driver, Gonzalez-Paez, was outside the car and had removed the 3-year-old girl,
who was unresponsive. The child was transported to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia, where she was pronounced dead at 2 a.m.
Briceno was found trapped and unresponsive in the front passenger seat of the vehicle. Briceno was extricated by emergency responders and pronounced dead at the scene.
Autopsies conducted on Briceno and the child determined they died from multiple injuries and the manners of death were ruled accident.
The investigation determined Gonzalez-Paez was driving eastbound on Valley Forge Park Road at a speed of between 70 and 80 mph in a 35-mph zone at the time of the crash.
“There was heavy rain at the time. There was a left direction curve in the road. Gonzalez-Paez lost control of his vehicle,” Mease and Schanes alleged in the criminal complaint.
Authorities alleged Gonzalez-Paez applied the brakes and drove straight off the right side of the road onto a grassy area. The vehicle went into a counterclockwise rotation, traveled 74 feet across the grassy area and struck a tree on the front passenger side door.
“The vehicle rotated around the tree in a clockwise direction. The vehicle sustained severe damage to the passenger side. The engine compartment was separated from the rest of the body on the passenger side. None of the occupants of the vehicle were restrained. There was no child car seat in the car,” Mease and Schanes alleged.
The investigation determined the seatbelts for the two front seats and the rear seat were all fastened.
“This is usually an indication that the seatbelts were connected behind the occupants so the warning chime would not sound,” Mease and Schanes alleged.
Investigators said prior to the curve in the roadway there is a curve warning sign.
The crash occurred at night when it was raining heavily and there is no overhead street lighting in the area, investigators said.
A post-crash inspection of the Toyota Yaris determined there were no mechanical issues that contributed to the crash.
The investigation also found that the Toyota Yaris was not registered to Gonzalez-Paez, who told investigators he had purchased the car from someone in Norristown and had never transferred the paperwork.
Additionally, the vehicle was not insured as required by law, and Gonzalez-Paez did not have a valid driver’s license, according to the criminal complaint.
During an interview by police, Gonzalez-Paez claimed that at the time of the crash he was working for a food delivery service and was on his way to an area business to pick up an order. Gonzalez-Paez also claimed a car came out of nowhere from behind him and passed him, causing him to apply his brakes and lose control of the vehicle. Gonzalez-Paez said he did not get a description of the other car, according to the arrest affidavit.
During the investigation, detectives also determined that Gonzalez-Paez entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico on May 5, 2023, and was apprehended by agents from Homeland Security Investigations. Gonzalez-Paez was on Homeland Security Investigations parole awaiting a deportation hearing, according to court papers.