Survivor of Prospect Hts. crash charged
The sole survivor of a Prospect Heights crash that killed three teens last weekend has been charged with criminal trespass to a motor vehicle after admitting to police the teens went “car hopping” after drinking beers and smoking marijuana the night of the wreck, police said Thursday.
Seventeen-year-old Daniel Ascencio appeared in juvenile court Thursday to face the charges filed five days after the horrific single-vehicle crash that killed Jessica Ferrer, 16, Elibeth Solis, 15, and Freddy Najera, 16.
Ascencio told police the four of them drank beer and smoked marijuana at one of their homes before deciding to go car-to-car looking for unlocked vehicles to steal from, police said.
One of the girls returned to the house at about 2:30 a.m. with a 2002 silver Honda Accord that she told the group she found with the keys inside, according to police.
The four of them first decided to drive to another town to “mess with another gang,” but realized they didn't have enough gas, police said. They then proceeded to drive through the community running red lights and speeding for about 30 minutes, police said, before the vehicle split into pieces when it smashed into two trees on the front lawn of a Prospect Heights home.
Prospect Heights police said Ascencio had been released into the custody of his parents Thursday.
Ascencio told the Daily Herald this week the group got into the vehicle driven by 16-year-old Solis and was nervous from the start as he knew the girls were drunk. He said he heard Solis tell Najera the car was stolen during the estimated 90 mph ride.
Police said the car was stolen from a man on the 700 block of North Eastman Drive in Mount Prospect, who told police he thought he left the keys in the car on Friday night after unloading groceries.
“This was a crash that could have been avoided if one of the 20 horrible decisions hadn't been made,” said Prospect Heights Chief of Police Jamie Dunne in a statement Thursday. “Our prayers are with the families that lost a loved one.”
Ascensio, the only passenger in the vehicle wearing a seat belt that night, stepped out of the mangled vehicle with a vague awareness of bodies on the ground around him, he said. The last thing he said he remembered is taking a few steps and passing out before waking up in an ambulance on the way to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Ascensio, a year away from graduating from Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, was released from the hospital a day after the crash after suffering minor injuries.
The Prospect Heights and Mount Prospect Crash Reconstruction teams continue to investigate the crash.