“He didn’t deserve dying like this,” his wife Judy DeLeon said at their home yesterday.
Jorge DeLeon of Elm Street, Trenton, was killed Sunday morning in a head-on crash Sunday morning in Hamilton. His daughter, Jasmine, 4, died Monday after she was taken off life support. TRENTON — Life support was shut off today for a 4-year-old Trenton girl who had been critically injured in a head-on crash with a drunken driver that also killed her father Sunday, police said.
Her family said they had chosen to keep Jasmine DeLeon on life support so her organs could be donated. Her father, 28-year-old Jorge DeLeon, died in the crash on Route 29 in Hamilton early on Father’s Day, and her 7-year-old brother Guzmario survived with broken bones and cuts.
Jorge DeLeon was killed almost instantly when the steering column was driven into his chest.
“He didn’t deserve dying like this,” his wife Judy DeLeon said at their home today, in Spanish translated by Jennifer Vicuna, her husband’s niece. “He was a loving man, caring.”
Judy DeLeon returned to their Trenton home yesterday from Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where life support for her stepdaughter had been turned off. The couple had married a year and two months ago, she said. They had a daughter together, who is 2 months old.
Authorities said Manuel Gutierrez Vazquez, 27, of Camden was driving south in the northbound lanes of the highway shortly before 3:30 a.m. when he hit DeLeon’s vehicle. Both vehicles were traveling at 65 miles per hour.
Vazquez was charged with DWI, death by auto and two counts of assault by auto. It was not immediately clear how Jasmine’s death would change the case, but prosecutors have said more charges are possible.
Vazquez was being held in the Mercer County Correction Center on $250,000 cash bail and an immigration detainer. He has never been licensed to drive in the U.S. and had been picked up in Texas for drunk driving a few weeks ago, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Judy DeLeon said she felt no anger towards Vazquez, just sadness at the loss of her partner and the daughter she loved as her own.
Guzmario is in Capital Health Regional Medical Center recovering from broken bones and a few cuts to his head, Vicuna said.
The family had been at a baby shower in Bordentown together on Saturday, she said. Early Sunday, Jorge DeLeon decided to take the children back home to Trenton while his wife stayed behind to sleep at a friend’s house.
Some of the people who had been at the party left at the same time, and were on the highway when Vazquez struck Jorge DeLeon’s car.
“They saw everything happen. They got out of the car,” Vicuna said.
They pulled Guzmario and the unconscious Jasmine to safety, but firefighters had to cut Jorge DeLeon out of the vehicle.
Hours later, Judy DeLeon received a phone call from another friend who was staying at her Trenton home. The police were there with news about Jorge.
Now she and her family are seeking help for funeral costs, she said.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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