Julio Acevedo arranged to meet with NYPD detectives at a Turkey Hill off of I-78 in Bethlehem. He waived extradition this morning in Lehigh County Court.
A man arrested in connection with a car crash that killed a pregnant woman, her husband and eventually their newborn arrived back in New York City today, a day after surrendering in Pennsylvania.
Julio Acevedo arrived at a Brooklyn police precinct hours after waiving extradition. The 44-year-old surrendered to police Wednesday evening in the parking lot of a Bethlehem, Pa., convenience store.
Acevedo was arrested on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident but could face more serious charges. He was expected to appear later today in court in Brooklyn.
He was accused of barreling down a Brooklyn street at 60 mph early Sunday and crashing into a hired car carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, who died Sunday. Their premature son, delivered by cesarean section, died Monday. The hired car had a stop sign, though it's not clear whether the driver stopped.
Appearing before Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach this morning without an attorney, Acevedo stared at the floor throughout the brief hearing and said little besides answering yes or no to questions.
"Yup," he replied when he was sworn in and asked whether he would tell the truth.
Unemployed, Acevedo lives with his mother in Brooklyn and has an 11th-grade education, he told the judge.
He said he most recently worked for a private paratransit bus company doing quality control.
"I maintained the vehicles to make sure they didn't crash," he said.
His surrender was brokered by a friend who had been in touch with police earlier Wednesday. The friend met officers at New York's Grand Central Terminal and led them to Acevedo in Bethlehem, about 80 miles away, police said. The friend had told police that Acevedo would surrender after consulting an attorney, but there wasn't one with him when he turned himself in, police said.
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli looked into the matter today and learned no Pennsylvania state or local police were at the surrender meeting. He said a crowd of media members gathered there, prompting New York authorities to contact the Pennsylvania State Police to determine how to proceed.
The New York police officers were told to bring Acevedo to the Bethlehem state police barracks, where he was officially taken into custody by Pennsylvania law enforcement authorities, Morganelli said. State police then contacted the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office and were advised by First Assistant District Attorney Steven M. Luska that they should take Acevedo before a Lehigh County judge because he was not taken into Pennsylvania police custody until he was in Lehigh County.
Morganelli said he is satisfied with that explanation.
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 would be killed. But police said there were no reports of shots fired in the area at the time of the wreck.
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.
The couple's son was buried Monday near his parents' graves, according to a spokesman for the community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple's funeral a day earlier.