Indian-origin man gets life sentence for killing three teens who pranked him
Representative image.
An Indian-origin man in the United States was given a life sentence without parole after his conviction on murder charges for deliberately ramming his car into a vehicle that killed three 16-year-old boys and seriously injured three other teens after they played a “doorbell” prank on him. California resident Anurag Chandra, 45, was convicted in April of three counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
The victims were identified as Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu, and Drake Ruiz, all aged 16. Those injured were an 18-year-old boy who was the driver of the vehicle as well as two other boys ages 13 and 14.
It took the jury in Riverside Country only three hours to return guilty verdicts against Chandra, PTI news agency reported. The probe revealed that Chandra deliberately crashed his car into the vehicle carrying the teens.
The incident
The crash happened on January 19, 2020, in Temescal Canyon Road.
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An investigation by the California Highway Patrol revealed that the teens were having a sleepover and ultimately dared one of the friends to do a “doorbell ditch,” so they drove to a nearby house.
Once reaching the house, one of the boys rang the doorbell of a home on Modjeska Summit Road and ran back to their car. Chandra, the occupant of the house chased after the teens’ vehicle in his car.
As the man pursued the victims, he re-ended the Prius and sideswiped their vehicle until they were forced to stop. The teens made a U-turn to escape but Chandra continued his pursuit.
When both the vehicles approached Squaw Mountain Road, Chandra increased his speed to 99 mph, then intentionally rammed his car into the back of the Prius, causing it to veer off the road and into a tree.
The six teens were in a 2002 Toyota Prius car that was forced off the road by Chandra, resulting in the car slamming into a tree on the east side of the roadway.
The 45-year-old left the scene of the incident and returned home without reporting what happened.
In a separate case, Chandra also pleaded guilty to misdemeanour charges of spousal battery and child endangerment and received credit for time already served.
The 45-year-old has been in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Centre in Riverside since his arrest on January 20, 2020, in connection with the homicide case.
(With inputs from agencies)
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