An Orange County man who pleaded no contest in connection with a Christmas Day 2022 street takeover in South Los Angeles that resulted in a crash that killed a 24-year-old nursing student was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Dante Terrel Chapple-Young was doing \u201cdoughnuts\u201d in his 2011 Chevrolet Camaro when he lost control of his vehicle after clipping a tow truck that was parked in the intersection of Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, with the Camaro careening into a group of bystanders on Dec. 25, 2022, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Elyzza Guajaca was struck and died that day of blunt trauma after being taken to a hospital.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles police said the driver abandoned the vehicle and ran away.<\/p>\n
Chapple-Young \u2014 who has since appeared in a public service announcement warning about the dangers of street takeovers \u2014 was arrested about 2 1\/2 weeks later in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He waived extradition to Los Angeles County, where he was initially charged with one count each of murder and hit-and-run driving resulting in death.<\/p>\n
Chapple-Young pleaded no contest May 23 to one felony count each of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and assault with a deadly weapon, along with admitting allegations that he fled the scene and caused great bodily injury to a second person, who suffered a fractured ankle.<\/p>\n
The murder and hit-and-run charges were dismissed as a result of the plea agreement.<\/p>\n
Chapple-Young is featured in a public service announcement that was shot in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, in which he described \u201cdoing my doughnuts with \u2019em and my car goes into a crowd of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember getting out and I looked around and I seen everybody getting up off the ground. I thought, you know, this would be like any other time, that everybody would just get up and be O.K., but unfortunately, that was not what panned out to be that day,\u201d he said in the nearly two-minute public service announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, a young woman lost her life and it\u2019s something that I deeply regret for doing and being responsible for, and you never think it could be you until it\u2019s actually you, that I would be responsible for somebody\u2019s death \u2026 from doing doughnuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not worth it. It\u2019s not worth burning a little rubber,\u201d he added. \u201cYou know, if it can be avoided, then let\u2019s just stop it. You don\u2019t have to go out and do doughnuts in the middle of the intersection to show your love for cars, you know. It\u2019s dangerous. Somebody can and will get hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapple-Young\u2019s attorney, Christopher E. Chaney, said his client is \u201cvery remorseful\u201d and that \u201cthis public service message was part of a creative solution between our office and the District Attorney\u2019s Office to reach a resolution that satisfied both their office and the interests of our client.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an emotional statement shortly before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford imposed the sentence, the victim\u2019s mother, Lorraine Guajaca, said that \u201cmy world and my family has been changed forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 My heart is heavier than I could ever imagine,\u201d she said, noting that she is \u201cleft with nothing besides memories.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told the defendant that he didn\u2019t even bother to check who he had hit and that he is only sorry because he got caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to live with this for the rest of your life,\u201d she added. \u201cI hope you\u2019ll never be at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapple-Young has remained behind bars since he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 9, 2025 at 10:40 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Orange County man who pleaded no contest in connection with a Christmas Day 2022 street takeover in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,356,4219,5295,2961,224,5337,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-133339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115002303053031724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}