Left: This booking photo released by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department shows Anurag Chandra, 42, of Corona, Calif., Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. A jury found Chandra guilty Friday, April 28, 2023 of the murder of three teenagers. boys after they pranked him by ringing the doorbell in 2020. (Riverside County Sheriff’s Department via AP, File). Right: A California Highway Patrol (CHP) Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) officer investigates the scene of a fatal accident in the Temescal Valley, south of Corona, California, on Monday, January 20, 2020. A jury found a Southern California man guilty on Friday, April 28, 2023 of murdering three teenagers after they pranked him by ringing the doorbell in 2020. (Watchara Phomicinda/ The Orange County Register via AP, File).
A 45-year-old California man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for overturning a car full of children who rang his doorbell and ran away – also known as ding-dong-ditch – by doing driving their car off the road and killing three 16-year-old boys.
Riverside County Judge Valerie Navarro on Friday ordered Anurag Chandra to serve the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2020 murders of teenagers Jacob Ivascu, Drake Ruiz and Daniel Hawkins, the authorities said. authorities.
A Riverside County jury took just three hours in April to find Chandra guilty of three counts of murder, prosecutors said in a news release.
“The lives of countless families will never be the same because of one man’s anger, callousness and outrageous conduct, and I am grateful to Judge Navarro for imposing the maximum sentence in this case. “Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement. the sentencing hearing.
According to the press release, the fatal crash happened on the night of Jan. 19, 2020, on Temescal Canyon Road, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Ivascu, Ruiz and Hawkins were all killed, while 18-year-old Toyota Prius driver Sergio Campusano and two boys, aged 13 and 14, were seriously injured in the crash but ultimately survived .
The boys were having a slumber party and eventually dared one of the friends to “ditch the doorbell”, prosecutors said. The victims and their companions then drove to a nearby home, according to a California Highway Patrol investigation.
Arriving at Chandra’s home on Modjeska Summit Road, one of the boys rang the doorbell of a house and ran towards the Prius. Chandra, who claimed one of the boys flashed his ass before running off, then got into his 2019 Infinity Q50 and chased the Prius.
As Chandra chased the victims, he pulled over from behind and swept the Prius until the vehicle was forced to a stop. The Prius turned around in an attempt to escape, but Chandra continued in pursuit, prosecutors said. Ultimately, as the two vehicles approached Squaw Mountain Road, Chandra was driving her Infinity at speeds reaching 99 mph before intentionally ramming her car into the back of the Prius, causing it to veer off the road and into collision with a tree.
Chandra said he did not stop or call for medical help after seeing the children crash because he did not believe the passengers were injured.
During the trial, Chandra testified that in the hours leading up to the accident, he had consumed approximately 12 beers. He told jurors that the doorbell prank drove him “extremely, extremely mad”. He also claimed that his wife and daughter were inside the house at the time of the prank and that he feared for their safety.
Following his murder conviction in April, Chandra’s defense attorney, David Wohl, told the Los Angeles Times that the conviction was a “complete overreach” and that he planned to file a motion for a new trial.
“I think we thought the worst-case scenario would be intentional homicide, but we also thought we argued for an outright acquittal,” Wohl told the newspaper. “The battle has only just begun, as far as I’m concerned.”
Before Judge Navarro handed down the sentence, several family members of the victims read victim impact statements.
“Every day we feel the absence of this young man,” said Craig Hawkins, father of Daniel Hawkins. “The hole in our hearts and our lives because of the death of our son is staggering.”
In a separate case filed before the crash, Chandra also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marital battery and child endangerment charges and was sentenced to time served. He has been held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside County since his arrest the night of the crash.
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