Norristown man sentenced for double-fatal crash in Upper Merion

NORRISTOWN — A Norristown man will be under court supervision for about two years on charges he caused a crash while driving without a license during which his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter, who were passengers in the vehicle, were killed.

Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez, 23, of the 600 block of West Main Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to one year and three days already served to 23 months in the county jail on a misdemeanor charge of accidents involving death while not properly licensed 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.

“Let’s not lose sight of what occurred here. This defendant wasn’t allowed to drive a vehicle on the roadways in the state of Pennsylvania. It caused the loss of life. We can’t turn a blind eye to that,” said Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who rejected a request by defense lawyers for a probationary sentence.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Gonzalez-Paez faced a maximum of one to two years in prison on the misdemeanor charge. Gonzalez-Paez was given credit for the time he spent in jail after his arrest and while awaiting trial.

While the sentence is essentially a time-served sentence, Gonzalez-Paez won’t be released from jail until court officials develop a parole plan for him.

Additionally, Gonzalez-Paez, a native of Venezuela who authorities alleged entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico on May 5, 2023, and was undocumented, also potentially faces being detained by federal immigration officials upon parole to face potential deportation proceedings.

During a trial last November, a jury acquitted Gonzalez-Paez of more serious felony homicide by vehicle charges, finding he was not acting recklessly or with gross negligence at the time of the single-vehicle crash.

However, the jury of seven women and five men convicted Gonzalez-Paez of the less serious misdemeanor charge of accidents involving death while not properly licensed.

Gonzalez-Paez showed no outward emotion as the judge imposed the sentence.

“All of this has been very hard for me, judge. You cannot even imagine the suffering, the pain and depression I have been going through. Many people see me as the worst,” Gonzalez-Paez said with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter before learning his fate, adding he loved the victims. “They were everything to me.”

In a victim impact statement read in court, the biological father of the 3-year-old child said the crash “affected my life in a terrible way.”

“I feel deeply hurt, both emotionally and mentally. I am very sad about all of this. Every single day, I live in sadness and feel cold inside. Your honor, I am completely broken. I feel that my life will never be the same,” the child’s father wrote in the statement.

Assistant District Attorney Caroline Rose Goldstein asked the judge to impose the time served jail term, which will require Gonzalez-Paez to have a parole plan before he can be released.

“This was a tragic crime. There is a 3-year-old who is dead, a mother who is dead and a father who is grieving. He (Gonzalez-Paez) killed them,” Goldstein argued to the judge, maintaining Gonzalez-Paez showed no remorse.

But defense lawyer Scott Frank Frame sought a two-year probationary term for Gonzalez-Paez.

“He’s devastated by what happened. He did everything for his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s child, who he took in as his own,” Frame said. “Back in Venezuela, he was an accountant. He had a degree. He left to come here to have a better life for him and for his girlfriend and for his girlfriend’s child.”

Gonzalez-Paez worked at a tube factory during the day and for a food delivery service at night, according to Frame.

Frame said he understood why the judge made clear that when you drive in Pennsylvania you need to have a license. However, Frame added, the reality is that for many immigrants who come to the U.S. for a better life they “get a deck of cards that’s stacked against them.”

“He was trying to do the best that he could for his family,” Frame said.

During the trial, Frame and co-defense lawyer Prince Yakubu argued prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence that Gonzalez-Paez was driving recklessly or with gross negligence, elements of the felony vehicular homicide charges.

Rather, Frame and Yakubu suggested the crash occurred when another unknown driver in a vehicle traveling behind Gonzalez-Paez was “aggressive and road raging,” causing him to speed up. The second vehicle attempted to overtake Gonzalez-Paez, forcing him off the roadway, defense lawyers suggested.

Frame and Yakubu argued there were many unanswered questions and reasonable doubt in the case.

But Goldstein and co-prosecutor Courtney McMonagle argued Gonzalez-Paez caused the double-fatal crash by traveling more than 60 mph in a 35 mph zone on a dark road during a rainstorm. Referring to testimony that Gonzalez-Paez was driving for a food delivery service at the time of the crash, Goldstein suggested that’s the reason he was speeding.

Prosecutors argued Gonzalez-Paez should have known that there was a substantial risk that his conduct could result in death or injury and that the crash was the result of a reckless or grossly negligent act, elements of homicide by vehicle.

Goldstein stood by the investigation and the prosecution’s evidence but respected the jury’s verdict, explaining that the misdemeanor charge of which Gonzalez-Paez was convicted included a finding of negligence, under the law, but not gross negligence.

Following the jury’s verdict, O’Neill convicted Gonzalez-Paez of additional summary traffic offenses including driving without a license, driving without insurance, speeding, and driving without proper restraint systems, which carry various fines but no jail time.

During the trial, defense lawyers, based on a report issued by a crash reconstruction expert they hired, argued a review of the vehicle’s so-called “black box” and GPS data showed that Gonzalez-Paez was traveling within the speed limit at various times in the hours before the crash and that the only time he appeared to speed up was when he claimed an aggressive driver was tailgating him.

Jurors viewed police bodycam footage of a statement Gonzalez-Paez gave to investigators from his hospital bed several hours after the crash. Gonzalez-Paez, who suffered a leg injury, choked back tears as he was asked to describe the crash.

During the interview, 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 illegally, causing him to apply his brakes and lose control of the vehicle. Gonzalez-Paez said he did not get a specific description of the other car, according to testimony.

There were no video surveillance cameras at the site of the crash. However, defense lawyers argued video surveillance footage did depict another vehicle traveling behind Gonzalez-Paez’s vehicle at a location about 2½ miles before the crash. The video footage was not sufficient to ascertain the identity of the second driver, according to testimony.

Frame and Yakubu suggested authorities did not adequately investigate the existence of a second vehicle and that Gonzalez-Paez didn’t get “a fair shake” from authorities.

Goldstein argued local police and county detectives conducted a proper investigation and that despite an extensive investigation, there was no second vehicle found.

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.

Police said Gonzalez-Paez was outside the car and had removed the unresponsive 3-year-old girl. 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 60 mph or more in a 35-mph zone.

“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.

Investigators said before the curve in the roadway there is a curve warning sign.

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.