A Silicon Valley man has been charged with murder seven months after prosecutors say he drove a Tesla at a staggering 142 mph before slamming into stopped traffic and killing a young mother and her toddler daughter in a fiery crash.
Ivana Balistreri, 29, and her daughter Lilliana were killed Dec. 2 on a busy highway in San Jose, California. The little girl was just two days away from celebrating her second birthday.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday, July 17, that 31-year-old Zachary Chernicky had been charged with two counts of murder in connection with their deaths.
Investigators said Chernicky was driving more than twice the posted speed limit at around 10 a.m. when he crashed into Balistreri’s vehicle, which had stopped in traffic.
Prosecutors allege the Tesla was traveling 142 mph approximately 15 seconds before impact and was still moving at 102 mph when it struck the family’s car.
The collision was so violent that both Balistreri’s vehicle and the car in front of it suffered extensive crash and fire damage, according to authorities.
Balistreri and Lilliana were trapped as their car erupted in flames and died at the scene.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen compared the alleged high-speed driving to firing a weapon into a crowd.
“The law says that it is murder when someone shoots into a crowd,” Rosen said. “When someone is driving 140 mph, then the driver is the shooter and their car is the bullet.”
Chernicky suffered only minor injuries in the crash, prosecutors said.
He is now being held without bail. It was not immediately clear whether he had entered a plea or hired an attorney to speak on his behalf. His next court appearance is scheduled for August.
Balistreri’s family previously described her as a devoted mother, loving sister and supportive fiancée who constantly looked after the people closest to her.
Her older sister, Rosie Balistreri, said Ivana helped her through periods of depression and always encouraged her to keep moving forward.
“She always pushed me to be a better version of myself,” Rosie said. “She would always call me and make sure I was okay and try to get me out of bed to go on walks with her.”
Lilliana, meanwhile, had become the heart of the family.
“We all gravitated towards her,” Ivana’s sister Francesca Alexander said. “She was a very happy baby.”
The toddler was also the first girl born into the family in more than a decade, making her arrival especially meaningful to relatives.
What began as an ordinary morning commute ended in an unimaginable loss that has left the family grieving two generations at once.
Prosecutors now intend to argue that Chernicky’s alleged decision to drive at extreme speed was not merely reckless, but deadly enough to amount to murder.
