Donations sought after Havasu couple involved in Sunday’s fatal crash

Friends and family of a Lake Havasu City couple are raising money to pay for medical expenses and care after they were involved in an auto accident Sunday afternoon that claimed the life of Junior Magdaleno and left his wife, Lexi, with devastating injuries.

The young couple had returned to Lake Havasu City for Thanksgiving after moving to Texas earlier this year. Friends since childhood, Lexi and Junior married in January of this year and moved to Abilene, Texas, for Junior’s Air Force career.

Lexi, 20, is a student at Grand Canyon University, where she is nearly finished with a degree in youth ministry.

Junior, also 20, had just returned home from a deployment in Iraq only days before their visit to see family in Havasu.

Following church services at Parker’s Calvary Baptist Church, where Junior’s father is a pastor, the couple were in a vehicle driven by Junior’s mother, Johanna Magdaleno, when a car heading in the opposite direction veered into their lane on State Route 95 between Lake Havasu City and Parker.

The head-on collision left Junior with fatal injuries, while Lexi was flown to Phoenix with life-threatening injuries. Johanna Magdaleno was taken to Havasu Regional Medical Center and later flown to a hospital in Las Vegas. She was released from the hospital, but readmitted on Tuesday. The driver of the other vehicle had suffered a medical episode, according to authorities, and he was treated at the scene.

Lexi was in critical condition and sedated, but by Tuesday her condition improved and she was conscious and removed from the ventilator, according to a GoFundMe page.

Robert Smith, a pastor of Calvary Baptist Church who is helping to organize the online fundraiser, said Lexi has one more surgery scheduled and several months of rehabilitation and physical therapy ahead.

The GoFundMe donations will help pay for her anticipated medical expenses and additional care, Smith said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Havasu residents had donated more than $18,000 to the account.

A second GoFundMe fundraiser is being conducted for the Magdaleno family to help offset Johanna’s medical expenses and her anticipated recovery.

That account had nearly $13,000 by Tuesday afternoon.

Smith says the owner of the Lake Havasu City Culver’s franchise is also conducting a fundraiser benefit on Monday from 5 to 9 p.m., with proceeds benefiting both families.