BEAVER, Beaver County — The Cranberry Township man facing third-degree murder charges was allegedly traveling at 84 mph in a 25 mph zone less than 2 seconds before a crash that killed two people.

Audible gasps interrupted the Thursday, July 31, preliminary hearing in Beaver County Common Pleas Courtroom 1 after testimony from reconstruction analysis specialist and state Trooper Sean Gercken that the driver had the “pedal to the metal” from 5 to 2.1 seconds before the crash.

He responded with Beaver Falls City police to the 3:20 p.m. crash June 29 where Israel Tun Cooch, 45, is accused of being drunk and speeding through a red light in a gray Dodge Ram 1500 and T-boning a red Nissan Altima, killing two people in the sedan and injuring a pedestrian.

District Judge Dirk Goodwald held all 22 charges against Tun Cooch for court. The charges included two felony counts each of third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle; three felony counts each of aggravated assault by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, accidents involving death or injury while not licensed; misdemeanor DUI and five summary traffic violations.

Police said June 29 was a sunny day with no adverse road conditions.

The passenger of the Nissan Altima, 23-year-old Sheylee Young Davis, died at the scene of the crash at the corner of 11th Street and 7th Avenue. Beaver Falls police officer Gabriel Morales, the final officer on scene and the one who spent the most time with Tun Cooch, testified the passenger door was significantly damaged and could not be opened to extricate Young Davis. She could not be freed from the crash until the driver was extracted first.

Police said the driver, Robert Lance Jr., 25, was unresponsive and bleeding from the ear when he was removed from the vehicle. Lance died while en route to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh.

After being hit, the Altima was pushed into the sidewalk and trapped a pedestrian underneath it. Officer Chayme Chunchick, a detective with the Beaver Falls city police, said the pedestrian was trapped from the waist down and could not move her lower extremities after the car was lifted and she was pulled out from under it.

Morales testified after helping other officers extract Lance, he checked on Tun Cooch who was sitting on a light post near the crash. Morales said Tun Cooch’s speech was slurred and eyes were red and glassy. Tun Cooch reportedly told Morales the Altima pulled out in front of him but didn’t say from where.

Morales said he saw a glass Modelo beer bottle with a small amount of liquid under the driver’s seat. He said droplets of liquid were also running down the side of the vehicle. However, police did not witness Tun Cooch drinking.

Morales testified Tun Cooch appeared to be having pain and was loaded into an ambulance then flown by helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian. Morales testified he did not attempt to perform field sobriety tests on Tun Cooch at the scene in case he was injured and because the others injured needed to be treated.

Morales said the conversations between him and Tun Cooch were in Spanish. Defense attorney Ronald Rojas questioned Morales on his ability to speak Spanish. Morales said he was “pretty fluent” as both his parents spoke Spanish growing up.

At the hospital, Morales testified that Tun Cooch asked about the condition of the others involved in the crash and allegedly said under his breath “because I was drinking” while they were the only two in the room.

Blood taken by UPMC Presbyterian and analyzed at a state police forensics lab in Harrisburg recorded blood alcohol contents of 0.286% and 0.205% respectively. The samples were analyzed June 29 and July 15, the day the preliminary hearing was initially scheduled. The legal limit in Pennsylvania is 0.08%.

In a later search of the vehicle, police uncovered 22 beer bottles, some open and some closed, in the back seat of the truck with other miscellaneous items.

Chunchick testified when he checked Tun Cooch’s driving record, it showed he was unlicensed in Pennsylvania. One prior driving violation was recorded in November 2021.

Gercken said although his report had not been finalized, he retrieved the 84 mph speed recorded by the Ram 1500’s air bag control module. The module can record data up to five seconds before a crash. He said the module detects speed, acceleration, changes in velocity and steering. It activates when the air bag deploys, it detects hard braking or a reduction of 5 mph within one second, among other conditions.

Besides the top speed, Gercken pulled data from the module that reportedly told him Tun Cooch was fully accelerating from 5 to 2.1 seconds before the crash. The module detected he began braking 1.6 seconds before the impact and made contact with the Altima at 55 mph.

Gercken said the Altima did not have the same module because the car was too old.

First assistant district attorney Brittany Smith and assistant district attorney Roy Cross also presented videos from nearby cameras as evidence.

One video, from a camera connected to Athens Family Restaurant near the intersection of 7th Avenue and 10th Street, partially recorded the crash in the distance. Another camera, about eight blocks south of the crash, at 7th Avenue and 3rd Street, recorded the truck roaring down the street and using the turn-only lane to pass a vehicle before continuing straight just before the crash.

“This was a tragic event, unquestionably,” Rojas said to begin his closing statement.

After offering his condolences to the family, Rojas said the prosecution had not proven an element required in charges of murder and aggravated assault — malice — which relates to evil intent or reckless disregard for safety. He said the case should just be for DUI.

“He wasn’t just speeding … he was going 85 mph in a business district,” Smith said in response.

She said the intoxication, unlicensed driving, evidence of drinking in the car and type of vehicle he was driving show malice.

“This isn’t a standard run-of-the-mill DUI,” she said.

Tun Cooch has been held in Beaver County Prison without bail. His trial before Judge Kim Tesla is scheduled to begin 8:30 a.m. Jan. 5 in Beaver County Common Pleas Courtroom 7.