A man from southern California was found guilty of mur*der in April for ramming into a car full of six teens who were playing a doorbell prank on him in 2020. He will now spend the rest of his life in prison, according to the authorities.
A jury found Anurag Chandra, 45, guilty of three counts of first-degree mu*rder and three counts of attempted mur*der almost three months ago. On Friday, he was given a sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole. The office of the district attorney for Riverside County has said that Chandra caused the crash that ki*lled three 16-year-old boys and then ran away.
Before Judge Valerie Navarro gave Chandra her sentence, many of the families of the boys who were ki*lled spoke in court about how deeply sad they are.
Daniel Hawkins’ father, Craig Hawkins, spoke about his son in court and said, “Every day we sense the absence of this young man.” This was according to a news release from prosecutors. “We have a huge hole in our hearts and lives because our son was ki*lled.”
In a statement, the district attorney for Riverside County, Michael A. Hestrin, thanked Navarro for giving Chandra the harshest sentence possible.
“Because of one man’s anger, cruelty, and bad behaviour, the lives of many families will never be the same,” Hestrin said.
Ding-dong ditch prank leads to de*adly vehicle pursuit
It happened in the unincorporated part of Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, on the night of Sunday, January 19, 2020. One person died in the crash.
Police say that one of the teenage boys was dared to either jump into a pool or do a “doorbell ditch” while they were having a sleepover that night. The teens drove Chandra’s house in a Toyota Prius. One of them rang the doorbell and then ran back to the car.
As they drove off, though, prosecutors said Chandra chased them in his 2019 Infinity Q50, which could go as fast as 99 miles per hour. Eventually, Chandra hit the back of the Prius in Temescal Valley, prosecutors said. This “sent it off the road and into a tree.”
During his trial, Chandra said that one of the teens rang the doorbell and showed his behind. This morning, Chandra told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he was “extremely, extremely mad” and had drunk 12 beers before the attack.
Chandra told the judge that he didn’t mean to hurt the teens and that he didn’t stop after the crash because he didn’t think anyone was hurt. He also said that he was going 99 miles per hour.
