ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown man charged in a 2022 crash on MacArthur Road that killed a motorcyclist and a 16-year-old girl was sentenced Friday to 2 ½ years to five years in prison.
Christian Joel Gonzalez Santiago, 29, last month pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree misdemeanor, in the July 31, 2022, crash.
The maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is five years in prison. Santiago was sentenced in a hearing before Lehigh County Judge Douglas G. Reichley.
The crash on July 31, 2022, on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township, killed 16-year-old Mia G. Due, a passenger in a 2017 Jeep Renegade, and 42-year-old Jose Estrada-Estrada, who was operating a motorcycle.Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan
The crash on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township, killed 16-year-old Mia G. Due, a passenger in a 2017 Jeep Renegade, and 42-year-old Jose Estrada-Estrada, who was operating a motorcycle.
Due was a student at Whitehall High School and Estrada-Estrada was from the Reading area. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said Estrada-Estrada's motorcycle collided with the Renegade operated by a 17-year-old juvenile whom authorities did not identify.
Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan’s office said Gonzalez Santiago was the driver of a second motorcycle that had been racing next to Estrada-Estrada just before the crash.
Officials: Racing caused crash, deaths
Traffic video footage reportedly captured the motorcyclists racing side by side.
The motorcycles were going in excess of 80 mph in a 40-mph zone, authorities said.
As Estrada-Estrada's motorcycle crashed into the Jeep, Gonzalez Santiago’s motorcycle continued traveling south on MacArthur Road, the district attorney's office said.
Prosecutors alleged that the crash occurred as a direct result of the motorcycles racing.Lehigh County District Attorney's office release
He drove around the crash and into the surrounding area and crowd, officials said. The video surveillance also showed after the crash that Gonzalez Santiago returned to the scene and helped others push the Jeep upright onto its wheels.
He also was spotted another time returning to the scene and consoling a woman identified as the "significant other" of Estrada-Estrada.
In exchange for the no-contest plea, authorities dropped charges of recklessly endangering another person, reckless driving, driving at unsafe speeds, not being properly licensed, not having protective headgear for motorcycle riders and careless driving resulting in unintentional death.
Prosecutors alleged that the crash occurred as a direct result of the motorcycles racing.
