Thursday, March 7, 2013

Man held without bail in NY couple's deadly crash

Pennsylvania State Police, along with New York City police officers, transport Julio Acevedo, 44, from the State Police Barracks in Bethlehem, Pa, Wednesday night, March 6, 2013, to the Lehigh County Prison. Acevedo was wanted by the New York City Police in connection with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of expectant parents Nachman and Raizy Glauber. Their premature child also died as a result of the accident. (AP Photo/Tim Wynkoop)

Pennsylvania State Police, along with New York City police officers, transport Julio Acevedo, 44, from the State Police Barracks in Bethlehem, Pa, Wednesday night, March 6, 2013, to the Lehigh County Prison. Acevedo was wanted by the New York City Police in connection with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of expectant parents Nachman and Raizy Glauber. Their premature child also died as a result of the accident. (AP Photo/Tim Wynkoop)

Pennsylvania State Police, along with New York City police officers, transport Julio Acevedo, 44, from the State Police Barracks in Bethlehem, Pa, Wednesday night, March 6, 2013, to the Lehigh County Prison. Acevedo was wanted by the New York City Police in connection with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of expectant parents Nachman and Raizy Glauber. Their premature child also died as a result of the accident. (AP Photo/Tim Wynkoop)

Pennsylvania State Police, along with New York City police officers, transport Julio Acevedo, 44, from the State Police Barracks in Bethlehem, Pa, Wednesday night, March 6, 2013, to the Lehigh County Prison. Acevedo was wanted by the New York City Police in connection with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of expectant parents Nachman and Raizy Glauber. Their premature child also died as a result of the accident. (AP Photo/Tim Wynkoop)

FILE - In this file photo of March 3, 2013, mourners surround a casket outside the Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar synagogue at the funeral for two expectant parents who were killed in a car accident early Sunday, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The baby of Nachman and Raizy Glauber, a boy, was delivered prematurely cesarean section and survived until the next morning but died around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, March 4, 2013. Police were searching for the driver of a BMW and a passenger who fled on foot after slamming into the livery cab that transporting the 21-year-old couple to a hospital. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

This undated photo, provided by the New York City Police Department on Monday March 4, 2013, shows Julio Acevedo, 44, who police are looking for in connection with the death of an expectant couple that was killed in a car accident in Brooklyn early Sunday morning and their premature baby, who was delivered alive but did not survive. Police are searching for the driver of a BMW who fled on foot after slamming into the livery cab transporting Nachman Glauber and his pregnant wife Raizy, both 21 years old. (AP Photo/NYPD)

(AP) ? A man suspected of fleeing the scene of a grisly New York crash that killed a pregnant woman and her husband was arrested at a Pennsylvania convenience store on Wednesday after a friend arranged his surrender, and he was ordered held without bail.

Julio Acevedo walked to officers waiting in cars in the parking lot in Bethlehem, Pa., and was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of an accident, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. Acevedo said nothing to officers who took him into custody, Browne said.

Acevedo is accused of speeding down a Brooklyn street at 60 mph early Sunday and crashing into a car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber. The Glaubers, both 21 years old, died Sunday, and their premature son, delivered by cesarean section, died Monday.

The surrender of Acevedo on Wednesday evening was brokered by a friend who had been in touch with police earlier in the day. The friend met officers at New York's Grand Central Terminal and then led them to Acevedo in Bethlehem, about 80 miles away, police said.

Acevedo, 44, was ordered held without bail on a charge of being a fugitive from justice late Wednesday during a video hearing. A judge said Acevedo would be held overnight in Lehigh County Prison while awaiting an extradition hearing Thursday to address his return to New York, said The Express-Times newspaper, of Easton, Pa.

Acevedo said he understood.

It was unclear if Acevedo had an attorney. The friend had told police that Acevedo would surrender after consulting an attorney, but none was with him when he turned himself in, Browne said.

Acevedo told the Daily News that he was fleeing a gunman who was trying to shoot at him when his borrowed BMW slammed into a hired car carrying the couple. He told the newspaper he fled because he was worried he'd be killed. But police said there were no reports of shots fired in the area at the time of the wreck.

The tragedy unfolded shortly after midnight Saturday, when Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, decided to go to the hospital because she wasn't feeling well, her family said. The Glaubers called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab.

The crash with the BMW reduced the livery cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from it. The cab's engine ended up in the back seat. The driver of the cab was knocked unconscious.

The couple belonged to a close-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, which is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. They were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect. Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent rabbinical family. Her husband was studying at a rabbinical college; his family founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews.

The couple's son weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered, neighbors and friends said. He died of extreme prematurity, the city medical examiner's office said.

He was buried Monday near his parents' graves, according to a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple's funeral a day earlier.

Word of Acevedo's arrest was met with bittersweet satisfaction in the Glaubers' community.

"It's a sweet bitter pill to swallow," said Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the community. "It's a little good news that at least the man responsible has been arrested, but it doesn't bring any of the victims back."

He added that community members hoped Acevedo would face murder charges.

"We in the community hope that today is Acevedo's last day that he sees daylight for the rest of his life," he said.

Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and the case is pending. He was stopped by police after they said he was driving erratically around 3 a.m. on Feb. 17. He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13, over the limit of 0.08, police said.

He served about a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter after he was convicted of shooting a Brooklyn criminal whose moniker, 50 Cent, was the inspiration for rapper Curtis Jackson's current stage name.

How Acevedo came to possess the BMW is under investigation. The registered owner was arrested Sunday on insurance fraud charges related to the vehicle, but the case was deferred.

___

Associated Press writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-06-Expectant%20Parents%20Killed/id-2f47da7a991c4172b0693230869a7f2a

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