BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Two men charged in a fiery 2023 crash that killed two sisters and seriously injured a third will not go to trial until at least March.
Court records show the trial for Tevin Brandt and Gustavo Montoya was postponed earlier this month to March 23.
Brandt faces two counts of second-degree murder, while Montoya is charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. Both men also face additional charges.
Prosecutors upgraded Brandt’s charges in October. He had previously been charged with manslaughter.
According to court documents, early on March 4, 2023, Brandt realized his cellphone was missing after a night of bar-hopping and used an app to track it. Montoya, an Uber driver who had driven Brandt earlier, joined him in searching for the phone.
Driving separate vehicles, Montoya followed Brandt to an area where sisters Karime and Jennifer Duarte and Diana Ponce were delivering newspapers, court records state. The tracking app showed the phone was nearby.
Documents say the men confronted the sisters by yelling and banging on their vehicle. The sisters then drove away, and the men followed.
The pursuit ended when the sisters’ vehicle reached the end of McKee Road and launched onto Highway 99, according to the documents.
A pickup truck struck the vehicle, which then burst into flames.
Karime Duarte, 21, and Jennifer Duarte, 15, died in the crash. Ponce, who was 23 at the time, suffered serious injuries but managed to escape.
Witnesses told police that as the vehicle burned, Brandt approached Ponce and yelled, “You and your sisters are criminals who stole my stuff, I hope you die,” according to court records.
Investigators later found Brandt’s phone in another rideshare vehicle parked at the location where he first confronted the sisters. The documents state the sisters never had his phone.
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