A Utah man has been charged in the deaths of a mother and daughter who died when the car he was driving flew off the road and landed on their pickup truck on Aug. 17.
Manases V. Castillo, 34, of Layton, has been charged in Third District Court with two counts of automobile homicide, second-degree felonies; and one third-degree felony count and two class A misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence.
According to police, Castillo was driving at a “high rate of speed” when his car “left the roadway” at 9300 E. Big Cottonwood Canyon “and vaulted onto a parked” pickup truck. Sierra Rosalina Chacon, 16, and Brandilee Kussee Chacon, 44, were sleeping in the bed of the truck at the time. Sierra died at the scene; her mother died a month later of “multiple organ failure due to being struck by a motor vehicle.”
According to Sierra Chacon’s obituary, the two were on a mother-daughter campout for her 16th birthday when they were struck by the car.
One of the three passengers in the car Castillo was driving told police that all four of them had been drinking beer and whiskey before driving up the canyon. Castillo’s blood alcohol level was .14, according to a probable cause statement; the legal limit in Utah is .05. Tests also showed THC in his blood.
One of the three passengers suffered “major traumatic brain injury, a lacerated lung and broken bones in his spine,” according to the probable cause statement. A second passenger suffered a “broken back, broken nose, scrapes and bruises.” The third passenger escaped with “cuts, scrapes and abrasions.”
Castillo was booked into the Salt Lake County jail on Monday; his bail has been set at $250,000.
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