Global Courant 2023-05-01 05:01:23
A Corona man was convicted of murder on Friday for the death of three teenage boys who played a prank at his home in 2020.
Anurag Chandra was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder after authorities said he deliberately rammed a 2002 Toyota Prius full of teenagers and forced it off the road.
“The murder of these young men was a terrible and senseless tragedy for our community. I thank the jury for their verdict. This is an important step toward justice,” said Riverside County Dist. Attention. Mike Hestrin said in a statement released to the Associated Press.
The prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Chandra’s attorney, David Wohl, called the first-degree murder conviction “a complete overrun”. Wohl said he intended to file a motion for a new trial.
“I think we felt the worst-case scenario would be voluntary manslaughter, but we also thought we had made a good case for an outright acquittal,” Wohl told The Times on Sunday. “The battle has just begun as far as I’m concerned.”
The deadly encounter took place on January 19, 2020.
Six teens were having a sleepover, and one of them dared their friends to pull a “ding-dong-ditch” prank — ring the doorbell and quickly drive away — at a nearby home, according to an investigation conducted by the California Highway Patrol.
One of the boys rang the doorbell at Chandra’s house and ran back to the waiting Prius with Chandra chasing after them.
As Toyota and Chandra’s 2019 Infinity Q50 approached Squaw Mountain Road, authorities said Chandra hit the rear of the Prius, sending it off the road and crashing into a tree.
Jacob Ivascu of Riverside died at the scene. According to the Riverside County coroner, Drake Ruiz and Daniel Hawkins, both of Corona, died after being transported to a hospital.
Firefighters freed the three other teens trapped in the car: the 18-year-old driver, a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old, according to a CHP press release.
Wohl said the media had reported it as a simple prank, but that a teenager had banged on Chandra’s door at 10:30 pm and “exposed himself, with pants pulled down to his bottom”.
Chandra’s wife and two daughters were in the house, Wohl said, and “he was extremely fearful for their safety.”
“It was much more serious than a ding-dong ditch,” Wohl said.
The Riverside Press Enterprise reported that relatives and friends of the victims had gathered in front of the court on Friday, many of them sobbing as the verdicts were read.
“We are happy to see that justice has been done, even if it’s hard to come by in this day and age,” Alex Ivascu, the father of two of the teens in the car, told the news outlet. “But we had a reasonable jury that looked at the facts and realized that the facts speak louder than words — or lying words from the defendant.”
