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A student from China has changed his plea to guilty for a t-bone crash in a Des Moines neighborhood in 2012 that killed a woman who was driving a group of teenagers to a family celebration.

Police say Yichun Xu, 19, was speeding in a new Mercedes Benz when he ran a stop sign and smashed into another vehicle. The crash injured five people, including Brenda Gomez-Zapata, who died from her injuries a few days later.

Her fiance, Richardo Perezchica was in court with Gomez-Zapata’s mother and brother and says the family has struggled to hold it together.

“There’s really not much you can do with such a huge loss, with such a big hole in your heart and we’ve just managed to be there for one another.”

Xu, with the help of an interpreter, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and three counts of reckless endangerment, all gross misdemeanors. He was charged with the least serious type of vehicular homicide, disregard for the safety of others.

The prosecutor will recommend 15 months behind bars when Xu, now 20, is sentenced next month.