A southern California man, who was convicted on murder charges in April for ramming into a vehicle of six teenagers who played a doorbell prank on him in 2020, will serve a life sentence in prison, authorities said.
Anurag Chandra, 45, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole nearly three months after a jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has argued that Chandra intentionally caused the crash that killed three 16-year-old boys before he fled the scene.
Ahead of Judge Valerie Navarro sentencing Chandra, many of the victims’ families spoke in court about the intense grief they still feel for the loss of boys.
“Every day we sense the absence of this young man,” Craig Hawkins, the father of one of the victims, Daniel Hawkins, said of his son in court, according to a news release from prosecutors. “The hole in our hearts and lives from the taking of our son’s life is staggering.”
Michael A. Hestrin, the Riverside County district attorney, thanked Navarro in a statement for imposing the maximum sentence on Chandra.
“The lives of countless families will never be the same because of one man’s anger, callousness and outrageous conduct,” Hestrin said.
USA TODAY could not immediately reach David Wohl, a defense attorney representing Chandra.
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Ding-dong ditch prank leads to deadly vehicle pursuit
The deadly crash occurred on the night of Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 in an unincorporated area of Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The teen boys were having a sleepover that night when one of them was dared to either jump into a pool or do a “doorbell ditch,” according to prosecutors. The teenagers drove a Toyota Prius to Chandra’s house, where one of them rang the doorbell and ran back to the car.
But as they drove off, prosecutors said Chandra pursued them in his 2019 Infinity Q50, reaching speeds of 99 miles per hour. Eventually, Chandra rammed into the back of the Prius in Temescal Valley, “causing it to veer off the road and into a tree,” prosecutors said.
Three boys — Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz — were killed, authorities have said. The 18-year-old driver, Sergio Campusano, and two other boys, Joshua Hawkins, then 13, and Joshua Ivascu, then 14, were injured.
Prosecutors said Chandra left the scene of the crash and returned home without reporting it to police. He was arrested because witnesses were able to follow him and alert the authorities, the California Highway Patrol said.
Chandra testified during his trial that one of the teens rang the doorbell and exposed his buttocks. Chandra said he was “extremely, extremely mad” and had drunk 12 beers in the hours beforehand, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.
Chandra testified that he didn’t plan to hurt the teenagers, and said he didn’t stop after the collision because he didn’t realize anyone was hurt. He also admitted to driving 99 miles per hour.
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Contributing: Jeanine Santucci
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @EricLagatta.
