A man who pleaded guilty to charges connected with the death of an infant was sentenced yesterday.
23-year-old Rony Gomez Lopez entered guilty pleas in March to misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter, downgraded from a felony charge, along with felony child endangerment and fleeing or attempting to elude police and misdemeanor simple assault, evading arrest on foot, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment. The charges were connected with an incident on August 25th of last year where he was punching a woman while driving a van. A door of the van was not secured and she and an infant child fell out of the moving van on South Spring Street. As the police investigated, Gomez Lopez showed up, and officers pursued him. The chase ended when he crashed the van into a retaining wall along East Brown Street. He tried to run away on foot, but police used a taser to subdue him. The child died at a Pittsburgh area hospital.
Gomez Lopez was ordered to serve up to four years in state prison for each charge of child endangerment and fleeing and up to five years for the involuntary manslaughter charge. He was also ordered to serve six months of probation for each charge of resisting arrest and DUI, one year of probation for resisting arrest, and two years for evading arrest and reckless endangerment. Judge Michael Clark ordered sentences to run concurrently, meaning he will serve up to five years in prison and up to two years of probation.
