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Charges filed in Christmas Eve racing crash

Posted at 3:44 PM, Mar 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-10 23:27:09-05

INDIANAPOLIS -- Police filed reckless homicide charges Thursday against the man they say is responsible for a deadly Christmas Eve street racing crash.

Connor Tomlinson, 20, was charged with three counts of reckless homicide in connection with the crash, which killed 59-year-old Rogelia Legorreta, 52-year-old Rebecca Rodriguez and 12-year-old Jasmine Aldai-Rodriguez.

MORE | Two adults, one child killed in south side crash

Tomlinson is accused of driving the Ford Mustang that was racing a Corvette on Christmas Eve last year on the 4500 block of East Street.

Police allege Tomlinson lost control, causing his vehicle to jump the median and hit a Chevy TrailBlazer head on. Two passengers in Tomlinson's vehicle were also injured in the crash, including one who suffered a broken sternum and contusions to her right lung.

According to the probable cause affidavit, a witness, Alexis Kincaid, told police she was sitting in the vehicle in front of the Mustang and Corvette when she heard engines revving.

"Then I looked back ... and saw the black Mustang take off, and you heard him shift gears," Kincaid said. "You saw him lose control, fly over  the median, hit the SUV, and pop up in the air, come back down, and then you saw all the sparks. A whole bunch of sparks."

Christopher Simms, who was in the same vehicle as Kincaid, told a similar story.

"It was raining out that night, and the Corvette was revving his engine a lot, and the Mustang decided he was going to show off and accelerated," Simms said. "And I'm guessing it was around 80-miles-an-hour when the back end stepped out and hit the curb, jumped over it, and went flying into a Blazer. And you know, just killed that one on impact. He was trying to show off, I guess. You. I know the kids in the Corvette, you know, had been playing around, fooling around, but they didn't try to punch it. And, that dude in the Mustang, he just, you watched the headlights raise and, and just, he lost it. That's all I can say."

Data recovered from the Mustang showed it was traveling at least 81-miles-per-hour just prior to the crash. Police said the speed limit in the area was 40-miles-per-hour.

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