Drunk driving. 

By Michael Mashburn From Daily Voice

A Salvadoran national was formally charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and related charges stemming from a drunken crash that killed one passenger and seriously injured two others, prosecutors said.

Jefry Valdez-Cruz, 25, was arraigned in Suffolk County Court Monday, Nov. 24, in connection with a violent Oct. 6, crash on Bellport Avenue in Medford.

Valdez-Cruz had allegedly been drinking at a barbecue before leaving with three passengers around 2:50 a.m, according to the Suffolk County DA’s office. He was driving a BMW southbound at high speed when he veered into oncoming traffic, left the roadway, and slammed into trees on the opposite side of Bellport Avenue, prosecutors alleged.

A passenger, 22-year-old Edgar Guevara Ramos of Bellport, was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene.Two other passengers – a 26-year-old Selden man and a 24-year-old Medford man – survived but were hospitalized. Valdez-Cruz himself was also hospitalized following the crash.

“This tragic incident was entirely preventable,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney. He added that the defendant’s “alleged decision to drive while intoxicated cost a young man his life and left another seriously injured.”

In court Monday, Valdez-Cruz was indicted on nine counts, including aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and reckless driving. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on the top count.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has requested custody of Valdez-Cruz once any sentence is complete, according to prosecutors. Authorities did not immediately clarify his immigration status in the United States.