The driver in a triple fatal Johnson Valley crash that marred this year’s “King of the Hammers” event, pleaded guilty to two charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in Joshua Tree Court yesterday. Three Hesperia area teenagers were killed in the February 2 head-on crash on State Route 247. Charles Persons, 32, of Thousand Oaks, took a plea agreement and faces sentencing of four years in state prison May 23. Persons was arrested after his Chevrolet Silverado hit a Saturn sedan, killing Tyler Shane Correll, 18, Jordan LaRocque, 17, and Ruben Ramos, 18. Investigators said Persons, who was working at the King of Hammers off-road event, was passing a line of vehicles at a high speed in a no-passing zone when the crash occurred; they say alcohol was not a factor, as was first thought.
