Teen charged with manslaughter in crash that killed two classmates, injured a pregnant woman and her baby

A 18-year-old who survived a crash that killed two of his high school classmates and injured a pregnant woman and her baby faces up to 30 years in prison.

Abraham Miranda was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with two felony counts of manslaughter and a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. The manslaughter counts each carry up to 15 years in prison. 

Feb. 16 about 11:30 a.m., Miranda, of Salt Lake City, was driving a car north on 300 West at 95.8 mph in a 40 mph zone, charges state. 

Seventeen-year-old Vidal Pacheco-Tinoco was in the front passenger seat, and 18-year-old Dylan Emilio Hernandez was in the back seat. Both were classmates of Miranda at Salt Lake City’s West High School.

As they approached 700 North, 32-year-old Amy Elizabeth Stevenson-Wilson, who was pregnant, was driving east approaching the intersection, according to charges. Miranda “attempted an evasive maneuver, struck the center median, traveled into oncoming traffic and collided” with Stevenson-Wilson’s SUV.

Stevenson-Wilson’s SUV rotated clockwise upon impact, charges say, and traveled west into a building at 721 N. 300 West.

Miranda told police that he was “going fast” at speeds above 60 mph because “he was in a hurry to get to the arcade,” charges state. Stevenson-Wilson was heading to the Salt Lake Temple that day, her brother told The Salt Lake Tribune in February.

Both Pacheco-Tinoco and Hernandez died of blunt force injuries, an autopsy revealed. Students and community members held a vigil for the teens at West High School on Feb. 17, where they signed posters with the boys’ photos on them.

Stevenson-Wilson suffered “traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding requiring the removal of her kidney and spleen and 15 broken bones,” charges state. Medics performed an “emergency C-section” and informed Stevenson-Wilson “that her baby would have brain damage and trouble using her left side.”

A witness told police he saw Miranda’s vehicle heading north before it got to the scene of the crash and that Miranda and another vehicle, a silver SUV, were traveling side by side, as though they were “dragging.” He told police he saw Miranda “put his hand out the window and shake it at the other vehicle.”

Another witness who was in the left-turn lane on northbound 300 West told police he’d seen Miranda’s vehicle going “very fast” and that further up the road, a diesel truck was “slowly turning into a parking lot on the east side of 300 West.”

He said the speeding car was going “too fast to slow down or wait for the truck to finish exiting the roadway,” and it swerved across all northbound lanes from right to left, crashed through the center median, crossed southbound lanes and hit Stevenson-Wilson’s vehicle.

A third witness was heading west on 700 North, and wanted to go south on 300 West, which requires drivers to turn right onto northbound 300 West and make a U-turn around the median. He told police he saw a minivan driving north about a block south and thought he had enough time to make the turn, but after he’d begun driving, he saw Miranda’s car swerve out from behind the minivan.

The witness accelerated because Miranda’s car was “close.” He saw Miranda swerve right and then appear to “overcorrect left and hit the median.”

A warrant for Miranda was issued Wednesday, court documents show, though he had not been booked as of early Thursday afternoon. He is expected to be booked into the Salt Lake County jail and will be held in lieu of $500,000.