Ding-dong ditch tragedy: Southern California man found guilty of murdering 3 teens

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A California man was convicted of murder on Friday after being accused of killing three 16-year-olds by ramming their vehicle with his in 2020 after they played a doorbell prank.

Authorities said Anurag Chandra fled after intentionally ramming his car into a Toyota Prius with six teenagers inside, causing it to crash into a tree. Three of the teens died and the others were injured.

A jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.

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On Jan. 19, 2020, the teens were having a sleepover when one of them was dared to either jump into a pool or do a "doorbell ditch," investigators said.

They drove to a nearby house, where one of the boys rang Chandra's doorbell and ran back to the Prius.

Chandra, officials said, chased after them in his Infinity Q50. He rammed them and they crashed into a tree in Temescal Valley, about 60 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Daniel Hawkins of Corona, Drake Ruiz of Corona, and Jacob Ivascu of Riverside, all 16, were killed. Sergio Campusano, 18 at the time, was driving the Prius. He and then-13-year-olds Joshua Hawkins and Joshua Ivascu survived the crash.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/ding-dong-ditch-tragedy-southern-california-man-found-guilty-of-murdering-3-teens/ar-AA1awQqK

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.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/us/doorbell-prank-california-guilty.html

[LoisB]

1. Stupidity rears its ugly head again.

[RockRaven]

2. Obviously when facing multiple murder charges for inexcusable behavior one will throw whatever

spaghetti at the wall one thinks may stick, but these excuses were just too incongruent to work.

He was afraid for his family's safety... So he left his family behind to chase these people.
He chased them just to express his anger... Despite being afraid for his family's safety, who he left behind.
He was afraid for his family's safety... So he decided to chase someone in a car after having 12 beers.

That dog won't hunt. Didn't hunt, that is.