Authorities have identified the drivers accused of causing a tragic accident on a California roadway, resulting in the deaths of two young girls. The incident left the suspects fleeing, with one abandoning his eight-year-old son in the vehicle, according to the prosecutors.
Terry Lamar Easter, aged 50, and George Gary Sanchez, 49, found themselves under arrest after the devastating loss of 17-year-old Maddalyn Dailey and her best friend, 16-year-old Isabell Hill.
On the evening of August 14, around 8:30 PM, Dailey was driving Hill home when their car was violently struck at a Victorville intersection by two speeding muscle cars, effectively splitting their vehicle in two. Sadly, both teenagers succumbed to their injuries on the spot.
Easter turned himself in to the authorities on a Wednesday morning. Allegedly, he was behind the wheel of a yellow Chevrolet Camaro, reaching speeds up to 117 miles per hour, with his injured young son seated beside him, as stated by the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators reported that the yellow Camaro was the initial vehicle to collide with the teenagers’ car. Before the authorities arrived, the driver hastily exited the vehicle and fled the scene on foot, according to police accounts.
The second vehicle to collide with the teens was a black Dodge Charger allegedly driven by Sanchez, who remained on scene and was said to be cooperating with investigators.
‘I saw everything,’ Dustin Dailey, Dailey’s father, told the Los Angeles Times. ‘The ball of fire from the other car that hit it, her car in pieces.’
Dailey said his daughter was driving Hill home and promised she would be back for dinner.
Maddalyn Dailey, 17, and Isabell Hill, 16, were killed on August 14 at around 8.30pm at an intersection in Victorville, California, after two speeding muscle cars struck their vehicle, investigators said
Terry Lamar Easter, 50, surrendered on Wednesday and was charged with two counts of murder in the girls’ deaths, as well as a misdemeanor racing charge and a felony charge of child abuse likely to cause serious injury or death
Easter had allegedly been driving at speeds of up to 117 miles per hour with his injured eight-year-old son in the passenger seat who prosecutors said he abandoned before fleeing the scene
He said he watched the garage door close and the roar of a car exhaust echoed through the street before the blood-curdling sound of crash caused him to rush just four houses down and discover the horrifying scene.
‘They were ejected from [the car], thrown clear down the road,’ he told the outlet.
The California Highway Patrol said in a release that the ‘violent impact’ caused Dailey’s Acura to ‘split in half.’
Easter was charged with two counts of murder in the girls’ deaths, as well as a misdemeanor racing charge and a felony charge of child abuse likely to cause serious injury or death, the District Attorney’s Office announced.
‘This was not an accident. Street racing at 117 mph is a deliberate and extraordinarily dangerous choice that ended the lives of two young best friends, exposing his own eight-year-old child to that danger and abandoning his child after the crash to flee the scene,’ DA Jason Anderson said.
‘We intend to hold him responsible for every life devastated by his alleged actions.’
Sanchez has yet to be charged, the district attorney noted. Both were booked on suspicion of murder and gross vehicular manslaughter with negligence, the Los Angeles Times reported.
ALSO READ: Imposter 49ers Player Dupes Women in $1.3 Million Romance Scam
Three others were arrested by law enforcement in connection to the investigation during the hunt for Easter.
Dailey had been giving Hill a ride home when they pulled out into an intersection and two muscle cars ripped their car in half. Both teens died at the scene
Dailey’s father said the road she died on was notorious for street racing
Dustin Dailey, pictured, said Ridgecrest Road has a deadly reputation for frequent street racing and speeding drivers
Ryan James Lewis, 45, Lukevy Shawntell Yates, 49, and Madge Wells, 74, were arrested and charged for allegedly being accessories after the fact. All three cooperated with law enforcement and were later released from custody, the outlet reported.
‘While nothing can erase the devastating loss of two young lives, we hope these arrests bring some measure of comfort to their families and send a clear message that those responsible for senseless acts will be held accountable,’ Chief Tariq Johnson, commander of the CHP Inland Division, said.
Dailey’s father told the outlet that Ridgecrest Road has a deadly reputation for frequent street racing and speeding drivers, so much so that he often suggested his daughter take alternative routes to avoid it.
‘She’s usually pretty good about it because everybody that lives here knows that road is just a deathtrap,’ he said.
Street racing in Victorville has been a pervasive issue for years. The Victorville Police Department urged drivers to exercise caution in 2021 after a ‘speed contest’ incident.
‘The Victorville Police Department urges drivers and parents of drivers to consider the seriousness of illegal street racing,’ the release said.
‘This activity can take lives, cost thousands of dollars in damages and fines, and land participants in jail. In the end there is no “winner.”’
Dailey’s father hopes to petition for a traffic signal at the intersection where his daughter was heartbreakingly killed.
Dailey’s father hopes to petition for a traffic signal where his daughter was heartbreakingly killed.
He has also considered pushing for the stretch of road to be designated a safety corridor, with an increased law enforcement presence and higher fines, the outlet reported.
But the devastated grieving father is left remembering his young daughter as someone who ‘lived life to the fullest.’
He described both teenagers as fun-loving and kind, with a lot of life they had left to live, the outlet reported.
Easter is set to be arraigned on August 31 at Victorville Superior Courthouse.