South San Francisco teen charged with vehicular manslaughter days after fatal crash
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/BCN) – A South San Francisco teenager faces charges of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and others for an alleged drunk driving crash that killed a passenger of his in his home town on Saturday night, prosecutors said.
Angel DeJesus Castro, a 18-year-old South San Francisco resident, did not enter a plea to the multiple felony charges at his first court appearance Monday and was scheduled to return to court Nov. 21. He remains in custody on $250,000 bail, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
The crash was reported around 11:40 p.m. Saturday on South Linden Avenue, where Castro allegedly lost control of his vehicle, sideswiped a telephone pole, continued driving and then struck another telephone pole, prosecutors said.
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A passenger in the vehicle, 18-year-old Salvador Guillen Avila, was pronounced dead about an hour after the crash. Investigators found a half-empty bottle of tequila and empty beer cans, as well as a vape pen and marijuana in the vehicle, and Castro was allegedly driving without a driver's license, according to the District Attorney's Office.
A GoFundMe account created to help Avila's family had gathered more than $12,000 in donations as of Tuesday morning.
The fundraiser created by a family member described him as "one of the greatest and kindest souls. He kept to himself and had so much ahead of him."