20-year-old Bjorn Hartzell has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in a deadly crash.
Hartzell pleaded guilty to five counts of Second-Degree Murder, a Class One Dangerous Felony, and one count of Endangerment, a Class Six Dangerous Felony, for causing a fatal crash that killed five people.
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, in November 2022, Hartzell, 16 years-old at the time, was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee near 107th Avenue and Lone Cactus Drive in Peoria when he struck a minivan carrying a family of two adults and four juveniles who had just left a Thanksgiving get-together. The two adults were pronounced dead at the scene. All four juveniles were transported to area hospitals. One died shortly after arriving at the hospital, and two others later died from their injuries. One juvenile survived.
Investigators found that Hartzell was driving at an extremely dangerous speed in the minutes leading up to the crash. Collision reconstruction showed that Hartzell was traveling between 112 and 115 mph at the time of the collision in a 40-mph zone.
A drug recognition expert who evaluated Hartzell observed multiple signs of cannabis impairment. Hartzell admitted to smoking marijuana, and a court-authorized blood draw confirmed the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Hartzell’s blood.
“No one expects a routine drive to end in tragedy because another driver chose to speed while impaired,” said Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. “Cases like this highlight why reckless and impaired driving remain among the greatest dangers on our roads. Five lives were lost because of one person’s decisions behind the wheel. While no sentence can undo that loss, we will continue to seek justice for victims and hold dangerous drivers accountable.”
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