Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman was set to roll out criminal charges Monday tied to a July 20, 2025, crash on the southbound 605 Freeway that left four people dead, turning a late-night freeway fireball into a high-stakes criminal case. Prosecutors scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference to spell out the allegations and the specific counts they plan to file.
Prosecutors told reporters they would walk through the charges and investigative findings at that morning briefing, according to NBC Los Angeles, which noted that KNBC/KVEA crews were among the first on scene after the deadly wreck.
Authorities said the chain-reaction crash started just before 1 a.m. on July 20, 2025, when a CHP cruiser and a Nissan collided, leaving the Nissan disabled in a southbound lane. A high-speed Kia then slammed into the rear of the stopped Nissan, igniting the car and trapping four occupants inside. Initial reporting by Fox 11 noted that first responders pronounced all four victims dead at the scene and that a driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI during the earlier investigation.
At a briefing, Hochman said the charges prosecutors planned to file stem from that crash and outlined investigators' early findings about speed and how the scene was handled. According to NBC Los Angeles, Hochman said a CHP patrol car was moving through the HOV lane at roughly 130 mph without lights or sirens and did not deploy flares or other warnings while the Nissan sat disabled on the freeway, and that another vehicle was allegedly traveling about 110 mph when it hit the Nissan.
What the charges could mean
Under California law, prosecutors have a toolbox of homicide and vehicle-related statutes they can reach for, from vehicular manslaughter to murder. Murder falls under Penal Code section 187 and requires proof of malice, while gross vehicular manslaughter and related vehicle homicide offenses are prosecuted under Penal Code sections 191.5 and 192. The specific counts Hochman files will dictate both the potential prison exposure and the legal elements the DA's team will have to prove in court. For the statutory language, see Penal Code 191.5 and Penal Code 187.
Families and civil claims
Families of the four victims later filed a formal claim accusing the CHP of failing to secure the crash scene and warn oncoming drivers, a required step before suing a public agency in civil court. That allegation comes from a release issued by Feher Law Firm. We first covered the tragedy in July 2025 in a story headlined DUI Arrest After Fiery 605 Crash, and the families' legal claim was later spotlighted in a press announcement summarized by Feher Law via GlobeNewswire.
Prosecutors said they would release the formal charging documents at the news conference, which should lay out the exact allegations and supporting evidence in black and white. We will update this story after Hochman's remarks and once the paperwork is publicly available.
