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New charges filed against suspect in fatal Raleigh hit-and-run wreck

Two new charges have been filed against a man who was arrested over the weekend in a hit-and-run wreck in east Raleigh that killed two people and injured three others.

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Mateo Guzman-Palacios
RALEIGH, N.C. — Two new charges have been filed against a man who was arrested over the weekend in a hit-and-run wreck in east Raleigh that killed two Wake Technical Community College students and injured two others.

Mateo Guzman-Palacios was charged Tuesday with two counts of felony hit-and-run causing serious injury or death.

Guzman-Palacios, 32, of 2201 Poole Road, was jailed Saturday on two counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, driving with a suspended license, failing to stop at a red light and two counts of felony hit-and-run.

Guzman-Palacios was deported in 2011 from the United States, according to prosecutors.

At a first court appearance Monday afternoon, a judge raised his bond to $510,000.

The crash happened shortly before 12:30 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of New Bern Avenue and Trawick Road.

According to a wreck report released Saturday afternoon, Jacob John Wootsick, 28, of Louisburg, was driving a 1998 Honda sedan east on New Bern Avenue when he tried to turn left onto Trawick Road.

A dark-colored Chevrolet Avalanche traveling west on New Bern Avenue ran a red light at Trawick Road and struck Wootsick's Honda on the right side.

Passengers Brittany Williams, 24, of Fuquay-Varina, and Naomi Mercury, 18, of Wake Forest, died from injuries sustained in the wreck.

Nathan Lee Norris and Tyrone Marquis Daniels, both of Raleigh, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

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