2 drivers found guilty of killing 16-year-old Torrance baseball player after running red light

TORRANCE, Calif. (KTLA) -- Two drivers in a crash that killed a 16-year-old baseball player in Torrance three years ago have been found guilty of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving, officials said Thursday.

Darryl Leander Hicks Jr., 31, of Los Angeles and Tung Ming, 24, of Rancho Palos Verdes were both found guilty Wednesday of one felony count each of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving on a highway causing injuries and death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced in a press release.

Hicks, who fled the scene of the incident, was also found guilty of one felony count each of hit-and-run driving resulting in death or serious injury to another person and hit-and-run driving resulting in injury to another person, officials said.

The verdict stems from a series of collisions on March 7, 2017, that killed Jesse E. Esphorst, 16, and seriously injured his 47-year-old father.

Hicks crashed his 2004 Audi A6 into Ming's 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 near Crenshaw Boulevard and Spring Spur Road in Rancho Palos Verdes and fled the scene. Ming then began chasing Hicks' car and both men ran a red light near Crenshaw Boulevard and Crest Road around 10 p.m., prosecutors said. They both slammed into the Esphorsts' 2009 Toyota Sienna as it was making a left turn, according to prosecutors and the Torrance Police Department.