NORRISTOWN — A jury acquitted a Norristown man of felony homicide by vehicle charges, finding he was not acting recklessly or with gross negligence at the time of a single-vehicle crash that killed his girlfriend and her 3-year-old daughter, who were passengers in the vehicle.
However, with what appeared to be a split verdict, the Montgomery County jury of seven women and five men convicted Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez, 23, of a less serious 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 Township that claimed the lives of his girlfriend, Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, 20, and her 3-year-old daughter.
Gonzalez-Paez, of the 600 block of West Main Street, showed no outward emotion as he listened with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter to the jury foreman announce the verdict after 2½ hours of deliberations late Thursday.
“We’re very happy with the verdict. Justice was served today. The jury saw this case was overcharged and they were able to see through the fact the investigation was not completed right by the police and the district attorney’s office and now our client has the chance to be a free man. Our client just wants to be free because he deserves that,” defense lawyer Scott Frank Frame reacted to the verdict.
“I can tell you the reaction I got was a big hug,” added Frame, describing Gonzalez-Paez’s response as the verdict was explained to him.
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 prosecutors Caroline Rose Goldstein and 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 the reason he was speeding was to get to his next destination to make more money.
Prosecutors alleged 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.
“I believe there was enough evidence to prove homicide by vehicle beyond a reasonable doubt. I do appreciate the jury’s time and work on this and I’m happy that this defendant was held responsible,” said Goldstein, explaining that the misdemeanor charge of which Gonzalez-Paez was convicted included a finding of negligence, under the law, but not gross negligence.
“How I read this is that the jury did not believe the defendant’s version of events but found that this rose to negligence and not gross negligence,” Goldstein added.
Gonzalez-Paez faces a possible sentence of one to two years in prison on the misdemeanor charge of accidents involving death while not properly licensed, likely with credit for time he spent in jail while awaiting trial since his arrest 10 months ago.
“We’ll ask the judge for a sentence that is in line with what he had done and gives justice to our victims,” Goldstein said.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who presided over the three-day trial, remanded Gonzalez-Paez to the county jail without bail to await his sentencing hearing.
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 a hearing before federal immigration officials.
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 carried 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.
“We put up a defense case,” said Yakubu, adding defense lawyers tried to give the jury what they believed was “the whole picture” surrounding the events of that night.
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, speaking with the help of a Spanish interpreter, 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.
“My client deserved better. This is America. We are better than this,” Frame argued.
Goldstein argued local police and county detectives conducted a proper investigation.
“Despite an extensive investigation, there was no other car. The police looked. But you can’t find something that doesn’t exist,” Goldstein argued.
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 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 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 wrote in the criminal complaint.
Investigators said prior to 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.
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.
