Two teenagers were indicted Friday and charged as adults with several felonies, including murder and auto theft, after allegedly recording the moment they targeted and fatally struck a bicyclist in a Nevada hit-and-run.
Police have said they tied the teens, who were 17 and 16 at the time, to at least three hit-and-run incidents the morning of Aug. 14. The indictment expands on the charges the teens were already facing.
The teens have been identified as Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys. Messages seeking comment, which were left late Friday with the teens’ attorneys, P. David Westbrook and Daniel Hill, were not immediately returned.
The alleged hit-and-run incidents include the crash that killed cyclist Andreas “Andy” Probst, a 64-year-old retired former police chief from the city of Bell, outside Los Angeles, who was pedaling along the side of a road when he was hit.
The video, shot from the front passenger seat of an allegedly stolen vehicle, shows it approaching Probst from behind on an otherwise traffic-free road. Male voices can be heard laughing as the vehicle steers toward Probst and rams the bicycle. Probst is thrown backward across the hood and into the windshield. He is then seen on the ground next to the curb.
Ayala said he’d get a “slap on the wrist” and only do 30 days.
Along with murder and residential burglary, the teens were indicted on charges of battery, attempted murder and residential burglary, and multiple counts of automobile grand larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle.
The younger teen also was indicted on a charge of possessing burglary tools.
Under Nevada law, the most severe sentence the teens could receive on the murder charge, if convicted, is 20 years to life in state prison, not the death penalty. That’s because they were not 18 at the time they were accused of the crimes. One of them has since turned 18.
Both teenagers are in custody without bail.
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