A 50-year-old man now faces two counts of murder after prosecutors say he was street racing at 117 mph in Victorville, California, when he slammed into a car carrying two teenage best friends, then fled and left his own 8-year-old child behind.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office charged Terry Lamar Easter with two counts of murder, willful cruelty to a child, and engaging in a motor vehicle speed contest in connection with the August 14 crash that killed Maddalyn Dailey and Isabell Hill, both seniors at Sultana High School. Easter, who also goes by the alias "Capone," lived in nearby Apple Valley and was the subject of a $1 million arrest warrant after the crash, the New York Post reported.

Prosecutors say Easter was driving a yellow Chevrolet Camaro alongside a black Dodge Charger near the intersection of Ridgecrest Road and Elmwood Drive in Victorville when his car struck an Acura carrying the two girls. The impact was so violent that the Acura split in half, prosecutors said.

Both girls died at the scene. Easter allegedly abandoned his vehicle, and his 8-year-old child, who had been riding with him, and fled.

District Attorney: 'This was not an accident'

District Attorney Jason Anderson left no room for ambiguity when he announced the charges. His statement framed the crash not as a tragic mishap but as the foreseeable result of a reckless decision.

Anderson said in a statement:

"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."

Anderson's language is notable. Murder charges in a street racing case require prosecutors to show more than recklessness, they must establish implied malice, meaning the defendant acted with a conscious disregard for human life. By calling the 117 mph speed "a deliberate and extraordinarily dangerous choice," Anderson signaled the theory his office intends to prove at trial.

The unnamed driver of the black Dodge Charger, who stayed at the scene after the crash, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. That driver's identity and age have not been publicly released.

Easter's associates apprehended as authorities closed in

Easter was not the only person sought in connection with the crash. Authorities also wanted Ryan Lewis, described as Easter's associate, and Lewis's mother, Madge Wells. Both have since been apprehended, though the specific roles they allegedly played, whether helping Easter flee, concealing evidence, or something else, remain unclear from available charging information.

The California Highway Patrol had publicly warned that detectives believed Easter was armed and dangerous. CHP released a physical description: 5 feet 6 inches tall, black hair, hazel eyes. A $1 million arrest warrant was issued before the charges were filed.

Easter was scheduled to appear at the Victorville Superior Courthouse for his first court appearance. Hit-and-run crashes that end in death have drawn increasing public outrage in recent years, as communities grapple with drivers who treat public roads like racetracks and then vanish when the consequences arrive.

Two seniors at Sultana High School will never graduate

Maddalyn Dailey and Isabell Hill were both seniors at Sultana High School in the high desert region northeast of Los Angeles. Anderson described them as "best friends." They were riding together in the Acura that Easter's Camaro struck at what prosecutors say was 117 miles per hour.

The details prosecutors have laid out paint a grim picture. Two girls in a car on an August evening. A man nearly three times their age allegedly tearing down the road in a muscle car, racing another driver. A collision so forceful it tore their vehicle apart. And then the man who caused it all ran, leaving behind his own young child in the wreckage.

Tragedies like this are not isolated. Across the country, families have been shattered by reckless and criminal conduct on public roads. A mother and infant daughter were killed in a capsizing in New York Harbor, and communities from coast to coast have mourned victims of senseless violence and negligence.

Several questions remain unanswered. Prosecutors have not disclosed how the 117 mph speed was determined, whether by vehicle data recorders, traffic cameras, or crash reconstruction analysis. It is also unclear who was driving the Acura or whether anyone else was in the car beyond the two victims.

The charges against Easter's associates, Lewis and Wells, have not been specified publicly. And while Easter was scheduled for a court appearance, the source reporting does not explicitly confirm whether he was in custody at the time the charges were announced or was apprehended on the outstanding warrant.

Murder charges send a message, if prosecutors follow through

Filing murder charges rather than vehicular manslaughter in a street racing case is a deliberate escalation by the district attorney's office. It reflects a legal judgment that Easter's alleged conduct went beyond negligence into the territory of implied malice, that anyone who races at 117 mph on a public road knows, or should know, that death is a likely result.

California has seen a growing number of street racing fatalities in recent years, and prosecutors in several counties have responded with tougher charges. Whether juries will sustain murder convictions in these cases remains an open question, but Anderson's office has clearly decided to set a marker. The charge of willful cruelty to a child, for allegedly endangering his own 8-year-old by putting the child in the car during the race, adds another layer of culpability.

Fatal incidents stemming from criminal recklessness continue to shock communities nationwide. In California alone, residents have watched as a retiree was fatally stabbed by a suspect released just a day earlier, and a young California woman was killed in a mass shooting in Idaho. Each case raises the same question: whether the justice system will deliver accountability that matches the gravity of the loss.

Easter's case will test that question again. Two high school seniors are dead. A child was left in a wrecked car. And the man prosecutors say caused it all allegedly chose to run rather than face what he had done.

Accountability starts with showing up. Easter, by every indication prosecutors have offered, did the opposite, and two families will live with the cost of that choice forever.