- Jason Castanon, 25, is charged with two counts of automobile homicide.
- The crash on June 21, 2025, killed Zachary Stafford and Nicolas Murdock.
- Castanon's BMW reached 129 mph just 1.5 seconds before the collision, charges say.
MAGNA — A Salt Lake man was charged Wednesday with running a red light at an extremely high rate of speed and hitting another vehicle, resulting in the deaths of a Grantsville couple last summer.
Jason Gregorio Castanon, 25, is charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of automobile homicide, a second-degree felony; plus running a red light and having an expired license, infractions.
Just before 10:30 p.m. on June 21, 2025, a BMW driven by Castanon ran a red light at 7200 West and state Route 201 and broadsided a Mustang, according to charging documents.
"The impact caused the front end of the BMW to immediately catch fire, while the Mustang flipped once and spun into the grassy median," the charges state.
Zachary Denton Stafford, 33, the driver of the Mustang, and his husband, Nicolas Keith Murdock, 40, were killed. Both were from Grantsville.
The responding trooper noted that "Castanon had slurred speech and glossy eyes, and that he had an odor of alcohol coming from his breath while out in the open. A field sobriety test was conducted to which Castanon showed signs of impairment," charging documents state.
Investigators who reconstructed the crash determined that Castanon was "traveling at 124 mph five seconds prior to the accident and that the accelerator was down 58%. At 0.05 seconds prior to impact … data showed that Castanon was traveling at 127 mph and that his top speed 1.5 seconds prior to the accident was 129 mph," the court documents allege.
After the crash, investigators say the speedometer of the BMW was stuck at 117 mph.
When questioned, Castanon claimed his brakes wouldn't work.
"They just ran out," he told police, according to the charges. "Troopers conducted an inspection on the BMW and found that the emergency brake functioned and all brakes and rotor measurements were within acceptable safety standards."
According to court records, prior to the crash, Castanon was convicted in July 2024 of going 84 mph in a 50 mph zone and for not having a valid license, and cited in 2020 for going 60 mph in a 45 mph and not having a license.
