Six Men Killed In Napa County Van Crash Identified

NAPA VALLEY, CA — Authorities have identified the six men killed in the Napa County van crash as farmworkers who lived in Stockton.

The six victims were passengers in a Toyota Sienna minivan that crashed into a tree on Pope Valley Road Sunday evening, northeast of Calistoga.

A coroner identified the men as Fernando Silverio, 34, Loreto Ricardo Hernandez, 42, Araon Ruiz, 39, Beymar Reynosa Rodriguez, 32, Demetrio Celerino Francisco, 39, and Pedro Lopez Gomez, 57.

The van’s driver and one other passenger survived the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol.

On Tuesday morning, the Napa County District Attorney’s Office filed 13 charges against Norberto Celerino, 53, including six counts of first-degree murder, six counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

Celerino, a Stockton resident, has three previous DUIs, according to the county’s district attorney’s office.

He was convicted of multiple DUIs in San Joaquin County in 2020 and 2024. A third DUI conviction was more than a decade old, according to the district attorney’s office.

The district attorney’s office said Celerino was on probation and had shown "prior poor performance."

He also faces special allegations for inflicting great bodily injury with a deadly weapon; great bodily injury; crimes involving “violence, cruelty, viciousness or callousness;” and crimes of an “increasing level of seriousness."

His arraignment was delayed because he is still hospitalized for treatment of his injuries.

"What hurts more is that this could've been avoided,"wrote Jasmin Ricardo, daughter of one of the victims, Loreto Ricardo Hernandez, on a GoFundMe page.

Hernarndez, farm worker, was the father of four, including a young son with autism who needs both of his parents, she wrote. "My family and I are low-income; my dad worked in the fields, and my mom currently works in the fields as well."