A 21-year-old man was charged Tuesday with murder in a street-racing crash that left two spectators dead in Chatsworth.
Henry Michael Gevorgyan was charged with two counts of murder and one count of engaging in a motor vehicle speed contest on a highway causing a concussion, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Gevorgyan appeared in San Fernando Superior Court Tuesday afternoon but the judge did not allow cameras in the courtroom.
The crash occurred early Feb. 26 on Plummer Street near Canoga Avenue, where police said Gevorgyan lost control of a modified Ford Mustang and plowed into a crowd that was gathered to watch the race.
Eric Siguenza, 26, and Wilson Thomas Wong, 50, were killed. A third man, identified by police as 21-year-old Luis Antonio Gonzalez, was injured.
Two days after police identified Gevorgyan as the driver, he turned himself in.
His attorney on Monday said Gevorgyan was not in the car involved in the race, claiming that video showed him standing on the street between the two vehicles involved.
A press release announcing the charges did not state that Gevorgyan was behind the wheel, only that his car spun out of control.
Friends said they were angered by the charges, saying Gevorgyan was clearly not the driver responsible. Speaking to news media, two friends said they do not know who was driving the two cars involved in the race.
“Photographs, eyewitnesses all prove he was not the driver,” a friend said. “We don’t understand how they’re coming up with this just off one mystery witness.”
Gevorgyan’s attorney, Kate Hardie, said the defendant’s sister had identified him –moments before charges were filed — as appearing in a video from the scene that shows he was not behind the wheel.
Prosecutors planned to ask that bail be set at $2 million.
Gevorgyan faces up to 33 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged.
