By admin 
PEORIA, AZ (AZFamily) — A then-teenager who caused a deadly Thanksgiving night crash that killed five people, including three children, will spend three decades behind bars, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
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Bjorn Hartzell was just 16 years old when the crash happened on Nov. 24, 2022, near 107th Avenue and Lone Cactus Drive in Peoria.
Prosecutors say Hartzell was in a Jeep Grand Cherokee traveling about 112 mph in a 40 mph zone when he slammed into a Mazda minivan carrying a family of two adults and four children who had just left a holiday gathering.
Both adults, identified as 36-year-old Elizabeth Simpson of Glendale and 31-year-old Jace Hochstetler of Phoenix, died at the scene. All four children were rushed to nearby hospitals, where one died shortly after arrival, and two others later succumbed to their injuries.
Only one child survived.
Hartzell admitted to smoking marijuana before the crash, prosecutors say. A blood draw confirmed the presence of the drug in his system.
From juvenile suspect to convicted adult
Because of the severity of the crash, Hartzell was prosecuted as an adult, a process that stretched from his teenage years into adulthood before his case was resolved.
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Now 20, Hartzell previously pleaded guilty to five counts of second-degree murder and one count of endangerment.
Friday morning, he was sentenced to 30 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.
“No one expects a routine drive to end in tragedy because another driver chose to speed while impaired,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a written statement. “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.”
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