BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A 25-year-old Allentown man charged in a fatal crash that happened in Bethlehem in 2024 has learned his sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officials say Jose Vladmir Jerez of Allentown, pleaded guilty on June 10, 2026, to felony charges of Homicide by Vehicle, Accidents Involving Death or Personal Injury and Forgery (in an unrelated case to the fatal crash).<\/p>\n
As part of the plea deal, the remaining charges against Jerez were withdrawn.<\/p>\n
Jerez was sentenced Thursday to serve six to 17 years in state prison, according to the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At 6:50 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2024, Bethlehem Police were called to a single vehicle hit-and-run crash that struck a utility pole in the 700 block of Central Boulevard, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Officers found a silver sedan off the roadway up an embankment in a wooded area near the north side of the road. The car had severe damage and blood inside the vehicle, but officers were unable to locate the driver or any passengers, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Authorities say the car was registered to a Bethlehem woman who investigators determined was not involved in the crash.<\/p>\n
Shortly after officers arrived at the scene, they were notified a crash victim had arrived at an area emergency room. The victim was identified as 21-year-old Ezequiel Hernandez-Cartagena of Allentown, according to the DA’s office.<\/p>\n
Hernandez-Cartagena succumbed to his injuries and later died at the hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n
Lehigh County Coroner Daniel Buglio determined Hernandez-Cartagena\u2019s death was due to Blunt Force Injuries; Motor Vehicle Collision and his death was ruled accidental.<\/p>\n
During the course of the investigation, officers determined that prior to the crash, the victim and others were at an Allentown park with a man they only knew by the nickname, \u201cLos Ten,” according to a news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group left the park in three different vehicles and the victim was the passenger inside the car driven by \u201cLos Ten,\u201d who was later identified as Jerez, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Witnesses said prior to the crash, they saw Jerez making an erratic movement to attempt to pass a vehicle in front of him when he lost control of the car. Jerez\u2019s car struck the utility pole and went up the embankment, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jerez then fled the wreckage while the victim yelled for help and beeped the horn, according to investigators.<\/p>\n
The witnesses then drove the victim to the hospital.<\/p>\n
This case was investigated by Bethlehem Police Officer Andrew DeFrank and was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney V. Paul Bernardino III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A 25-year-old Allentown man charged in a fatal crash that happened in Bethlehem in 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,1391,31],"class_list":["post-264781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}