![\"Sky](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been convicted of murdering three 16-year-olds after, a court was told, a teenager knocked on his door and exposed his buttocks at him as a prank.<\/p>\n
Anurag Chandra deliberately rammed a car the boys were travelling in before the driver lost control and slammed into a tree in Temescal Valley, Los Angeles, on 19 January 2020.<\/p>\n
Chandra fled the scene after the crash.<\/p>\n
Three 16-year-olds – Daniel Hawkins of Corona; Drake Ruiz of Corona; and Jacob Ivascu of Riverside – died in the collision, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office.<\/p>\n
They were travelling in the same Toyota Prius as Sergio Campusano, 18, and Joshua Hawkins and Joshua Ivascu, both 13.<\/p>\n
The friends had dared one boy to either jump into a pool at night or play “ding dong ditch”, a game commonly called knock down Ginger in England but that has many other names in the UK and around the world.<\/p>\n
Chandra, who didn’t know the teens, testified at trial that one of the boys rang his doorbell and exposed his buttocks before running away, according to The Riverside Press-Enterprise.<\/p>\n
He testified that he followed the car because he feared for his family’s safety and wanted to express his anger. He said he was “extremely, extremely mad” from the prank.<\/p>\n
Chandra also testified that he drank 12 beers in the hours before the crash, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n
He said he did not plan to crash into the Prius and testified that he did not stop after rear-ending the car because he did not realise anyone had been injured – even though he admitted under cross-examination that he had been driving 99mph (159kph) before the collision.<\/p>\n
Chandra was convicted in a Riverside County courtroom of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.<\/p>\n
“The murder of these young men was a horrendous and senseless tragedy for our community. I thank the jury for their verdict. This is an important step toward justice,” county district attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Chandra’s lawyer, David Wohl, did not reply to a request for comment on Friday.<\/p>\n
Chandra was already facing criminal charges in connection with alleged domestic violence in 2020 when the killings occurred.<\/p>\n
Source: \u00a0<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"