Frankford man who struck and killed a skateboarder in a Bucks County hit and run was sentenced to prison

In the 18 months since he ran over Joel Moreau with his car and left him to die on the side of a road in Bristol Township, Tajair Delbridge said Wednesday, he has come to regret his actions and accepted responsibility for his crime.

In pleading guilty to accidents involving death, hindering apprehension, and related offenses, Delbridge, 26, apologized for the immense pain that Moreau’s family members said they are struggling to live with.

“I sympathize with Joel’s family, and I grieve with them,” Delbridge said. “I would trade places with him if I could. I didn’t mean to cause his family any pain.”

Bucks County Court Judge Charissa Liller sentenced Delbridge to the mandatory minimum of three to six years in state prison for the November 2023 crash, with a consecutive term of seven years of probation.

Liller said the Frankford native seemed sincere in his apology. But she struggled to understand why Delbridge did not bother to stop and check on the 28-year-old skateboarder he knew he had hit.

She asked him why he hid the damaged Kia K5 in a secluded area after the crash; why he lied to the car’s owner and pressured her to report it stolen; and why he waited to turn himself in until six months later, when a grand jury recommended he be charged in Moreau’s death.

“Nothing you would’ve done would’ve brought him back,” Liller said. “But if you would’ve stayed there, at least the family would know you didn’t leave their son to die on the road like an animal.”

Ultimately, the judge said, it was due to the grace of Moreau’s loved ones, who said in victim-impact statements presented in court that he would have wanted to see Delbridge have a chance to better his life, that she accepted his guilty plea.

Delbridge’s attorney, Lisa Williams, said during the hearing that he fled the scene of the crash on Haines Road because he was scared — he was in a county he was unfamiliar with and felt he was being confronted by passersby who had assembled to render aid to Moreau.

At the time of the crash, Delbridge and his girlfriend were driving to a planned vacation, and had rented the car through a friend of his, according to evidence presented Wednesday.

Moreau was riding his skateboard about 10:16 p.m. when Delbridge struck him with the Kia while momentarily distracted. Eyewitnesses told investigators that Delbridge parked in a nearby lot to assess the damage to the vehicle, then turned around after the crash to view the scene, but ultimately sped away without checking on Moreau.

Those eyewitnesses saw Delbridge turn down a nearby road, and helped lead police to the K5 in a wooded area a few miles away, according to court filings. The vehicle had sustained significant front-end damage, and police found marijuana paraphernalia inside.

When questioned by the vehicle’s owner about the crash, Delbridge lied to her, prosecutors said Wednesday, telling her he had been carjacked by a group of masked men.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Bukowski said Wednesday’s hearing was the first time Delbridge admitted any involvement in the fatal crash.

He had exercised his Fifth Amendment rights when questioned before a grand jury and had forced the Moreau family to “suffer through a preliminary hearing,” the prosecutor said.

Moreau’s relatives described him Wednesday as a “technological wizard” who loved working on computers and an avid outdoorsman.

His older sister Nicole said he was a “quiet, gentle, kind soul.” She found one of his discarded shoes near the scene of the crash and now sleeps with it on her nightstand as a constant reminder of the life she said was unjustly taken from her family.

“Joel is gone, and the weight of that is heavy on us every day,” she said. “Despite the callousness of the driver and his passenger, the kindness of the strangers who came to help him in his final moments showed us that Joel was truly loved by everyone.”