{"id":402748,"date":"2026-07-17T21:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:59:16","slug":"driver-charged-with-murder-in-crash-that-killed-2-on-highway-87-in-san-jose-kion-central-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402748\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver charged with murder in crash that killed 2 on Highway 87 in San Jose \u2013 KION Central Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tim Fang<\/p>\n

A San Jose driver has been arrested and charged with murder following a fiery crash that killed a mother and her young child on Highway 87 late last year.<\/p>\n

According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney\u2019s Office, 31-year-old Zachary Chernicky was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of murder in connection with the multi-vehicle crash, which took place on the morning of Dec. 2, 2025<\/a>\u00a0north of Curtner Avenue. A fire following the collision burned two Teslas and a Lexus.<\/p>\n

\"fatalA view above the scene of a multi-vehicle crash on northbound Highway 87 in San Jose, Dec. 2, 2025.<\/p>\n

KPIX<\/p>\n

According to the CHP, an adult and a juvenile who were inside the Lexus died in the collision. The family identified the victims <\/a>as 29-year-old Ivana Balisteri and Lilliana, her 1-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

In a statement Thursday, the agency said an investigation determined one of the Tesla drivers was at fault for the collision and an arrest warrant was issued. Chernicky was arrested on Monday without incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Chernicky was driving his Tesla at over 140 mph before striking the back of the victim\u2019s vehicle, which then struck the vehicle in front of them. The posted speed limit on the freeway is 65 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law says that it is murder when someone shoots into a crowd,\u201d District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. \u201cWhen someone is driving 140 mph, then the driver is the shooter and their car is the bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chernicky suffered minor injuries in the crash, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

According to the DA\u2019s office, Chernicky was remanded to jail without bail following his arraignment. His next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 25.<\/p>\n

Chernicky faces \u201csignificant prison time\u201d if convicted, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tim Fang A San Jose driver has been arrested and charged with murder following a fiery crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-402748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}