Man Who Crashed Into Teens After Doorbell Prank Is Found Guilty of Murder

In January 2020, one of the boys in the car had been dared to prank a home, the district attorney’s office said, and the six teenagers drove to Mr. Chandra’s in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the Prius they were riding in, and the group drove off.

Mr. Chandra then chased after them in his own vehicle, prosecutors said, and rammed into the back of the Prius, “causing it to veer off the road and into a tree.” He fled after the crash, the California Highway Patrol said, and was arrested after witnesses followed him to a home and alerted the authorities.

Three boys, Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, were killed, the authorities said. The driver, Sergio Campusano, then 18, and two other boys, Joshua Hawkins, then 13, and Joshua Ivascu, then 14, were injured.

During the trial, Mr. Chandra testified that he had been afraid for his family’s safety that night when he saw a person with a hooded sweatshirt outside his home, and that he chased down the other car to verbally express his anger, The Press-Enterprise reported. He also testified that he had drunk 12 bottles of beer on the night of the crash, the newspaper reported.

“The murder of these young men was a horrendous and senseless tragedy for our community,” Mike Hestrin, the Riverside County district attorney, said in an emailed statement. “I thank the jury for their verdict.”