{"id":269068,"date":"2026-08-20T20:53:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269068\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T20:53:46","slug":"driver-sentenced-to-prison-for-bethlehem-hit-and-run-that-killed-20-year-old-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/269068\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver sentenced to prison for Bethlehem hit-and-run that killed 20-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"

The driver in a fatal 2024 hit-and-run crash in Bethlehem was sentenced Thursday to state prison, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced.<\/p>\n

Jose Vladmir Jerez, 25, of Allentown, pleaded guilty June 10<\/a> to felony counts of homicide by vehicle and leaving an accident involving death or personal injury, as well as to forgery in an unrelated case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lehigh County Judge James Anthony sentenced Jerez to six to 17 years in state prison.<\/p>\n

The crash occurred shortly before 6:50 p.m. Oct. 13, 2024<\/a>, in the 700 block of Central Boulevard in West Bethlehem. <\/p>\n

Investigators said the victim, 20-year-old Ezequiel Hernandez-Cartagena, of Allentown, was at a park in Allentown with others when he got into a car driven by a man known only by the nickname Los Ten, later identified by authorities as Jerez.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told police the car made an erratic movement during an attempt to pass another vehicle, struck a utility pole and went up an embankment.<\/p>\n

\u201cJerez then fled the wreckage while the victim yelled for help and beeped the horn,\u201d Holihan\u2019s office said in a news release Thursday. \u201cThe witnesses then drove the victim to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez-Cartagena was pronounced dead that night at the hospital of his injuries.<\/p>\n

Police said they found the car unoccupied and that it was registered to a Bethlehem woman, who they determined was not involved in the crash.<\/p>\n

Investigators said they found blood in the car and that DNA testing linked Jerez to the vehicle. Police charged him in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem police officer Andrew DeFrank investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney V. Paul Bernardino III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The driver in a fatal 2024 hit-and-run crash in Bethlehem was sentenced Thursday to state prison, Lehigh County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-269068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269068","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=269068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}