Manuel Gutierrez Vazquez was allegedly drunk and heading the wrong way when the crash occurred.
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. HAMILTON — The allegedly drunken driver who caused a head-on collision that killed Trenton father Jorge DeLeon early Sunday morning faces new charges after the death of DeLeon’s 4-year-old daughter on Monday, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said yesterday.
Manuel Gutierrez Vazquez, a 27-year-old Camden man, was charged yesterday afternoon with a second count of death by auto, an upgrade from the assault-by-auto charge he had faced when Jasmine DeLeon was still alive. Jasmine died Monday.
Vazquez already was facing a death-by-auto charge in the killing of the girl’s father, DeLeon. The offense, more commonly known as a vehicular homicide, is leveled where the driver of a car acts recklessly and causes the death of another.
“If someone dies as a result of your actions in a vehicle, and your actions are reckless, that’s death by auto,” Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Skylar Weissman said yesterday.
A vehicular homicide does not necessarily mean the driver intended to kill anyone. But Weissman pointed out that prosecutors can charge aggravated manslaughter or manslaughter — not just murder — in cases that have been declared homicides.
“Murder per se is purposely or knowingly intending to kill somebody,” he said.
Vazquez was driving in Hamilton early Sunday, allegedly heading the wrong way on Route 29, when his vehicle collided with the car DeLeon was driving.
Bail for Vazquez has been increased to $400,000 as a result of the new charges, up $150,000 from where it was set Sunday, and assault-by-auto charges remain for the injuries sustained by DeLeon’s 7-year-old son, the prosecutor’s office said.
The killings of DeLeon and his daughter will be counted as homicides by the prosecutor’s office. The agency has also counted a separate fatal accident from Trenton early Monday where a city man died as a homicide, bumping up Trenton’s total number of slayings yet again.
Darryl “Hershey” Boone was allegedly drunk behind the wheel of a car traveling down Pennington Avenue when the vehicle slammed into a utility pole. A 22-year-old city man in the backseat, Jamere Cullers, was killed, and Boone was charged with the vehicular homicide on Tuesday.
Cullers’ death marks the city’s 18th homicide of 2013. Trenton police do not count vehicular deaths, but a case of a killing of a hostage taker by State Police to end a standoff last month means their tally is at 18 for the year as well. Homicide is technically death at the hands of another, so police-involved killings are included in the homicide count.
Boone was charged with first-degree death by auto partially because his crash happened in a school zone, on the same block as Monument Elementary. Though the crash occurred after 2 a.m., the statute specifically states it does not matter whether school was in session or not. While a person convicted of second-degree death by auto can receive five to 10 years in prison, sentences for first-degree violations can be 10 to 30 years.
Vehicular homicides do not have to involve a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but authorities have alleged both Vazquez and Boone were drunk.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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