Man enters guilty plea for deadly Beaver Falls crash

A man has pleaded guilty to 20 charges for a crash that killed two people and seriously injured a third in Beaver Falls.

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The crash happened at the intersection of 11th Street and Seventh Avenue in June 2025, killing 23-year-old Sheylee Young-Davis and 25-year-old Matthew Lance Jr. The crash also severely injured Carrie Koch, who was pinned under one of the vehicles while walking home from work.

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Online court records show Israel Cooch, 46, entered the plea on Tuesday. He pleaded guilty to 20 of 22 charges, including two counts of homicide by vehicle while DUI, two counts of homicide by vehicle and three counts of aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI.

Two counts of third-degree murder were withdrawn.

Surveillance video used in court during a hearing in July showed a Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Cooch flying through an intersection before crashing into a red sedan. It also showed that the traffic light was red when the truck entered the intersection and T-boned the sedan.

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At that same hearing, troopers testified that the truck’s black box showed it was traveling at 84 mph up until 1.6 seconds before impact.

Prosecutors claimed Cooch’s blood alcohol level is more than twice the legal limit. Officers also testified they found both open and empty beer bottles inside the truck.

Initially, there were concerns that Cooch would be deported before justice was served, because investigators discovered he was in the U.S. without legal immigration status.

A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

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