A Southern California man has been charged with murder after a high-speed street race ended with two teenage girls dead, according to officials.
Terry Lamar Easter, a 50-year-old Apple Valley resident, has been accused of crashing his Chevrolet Camaro into the girls' Acura TL at 117 mph in nearby Victorville on August 14.
The crash killed best friends Maddalyn Dailey, 17, and Isabell Hill, 16, who were both beginning their senior year of high school.
“Her and her friend Isabell, they were ride or die,” Dailey’s grieving father, Dustin Dailey, told KTLA. “They were inseparable.”
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office announced last Friday that Easter was charged with two counts of murder in connection with the girls’ deaths.
At the time of the crash, Easter had his 8-year-old child in the car, who was injured, according to officials.
Easter allegedly abandoned his child and fled the crash, prompting the California Highway Patrol to issue a “wanted” poster on Facebook, telling the public that the man had a $1,000,000 warrant for his arrest and that he was believed to be “armed and dangerous.”
He turned himself in on Wednesday morning after a nearly two-week search.
“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 8-year-old child to that danger, and abandoning his child after the crash to flee the scene,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said in a statement.
“We intend to hold him responsible for every life devastated by his alleged actions.”
Aside from the murder charges, Easter has been accused of one count of willful cruelty to a child and one count of engaging in a motor vehicle speed contest.
Police also arrested the Riverside man Easter was allegedly racing, 49-year-old George Gary Sanchez, shortly after the crash.
Easter and Sanchez, who was driving a Dodge Charger, were speeding through a residential neighborhood before crashing into the girls’ Acura that was entering an intersection, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Fundraisers have been set up for the girls’ funeral costs and other expenses.
“Maddalyn had just begun her senior year at Sultana High School, with so much life ahead of her,” read a GoFundMe page created by the teen’s family that has raised more than $37,000.
“She tragically lost her life alongside her best friend, leaving an unimaginable hole in the hearts of everyone who knew and loved them.”
Isabell was remembered as “beautiful inside and out, sweet, funny, silly, smart, strong in her faith, and deeply loved by everyone fortunate enough to know her” on her GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly $30,000.
“She had big dreams, worked hard in school, loved her church, and brought so much joy to the people around her.”
