Lansdale man gets 3-6 years for fatal crash
The April evening began with a trip to the Phillies game. But the fun night out for a group of 21-year-olds from Lansdale ended with a gruesome accident that split a car in half. One passenger was left dead on the side of the road as the driver fled the scene.
The April evening began with a trip to the Phillies game. But the fun night out for a group of 21-year-olds from Lansdale ended with a gruesome accident that split a car in half. One passenger was left dead on the side of the road as the driver fled the scene.
Emotion generated by the tragedy remained fresh three years later, as a Montgomery County judge Friday sentenced Sean Sperl, now 24, to three to six years in a state prison for the 2013 accident that killed Ryan Petrille.
"This is a really, really sad day for two families who are in such pain on so many levels," said Judge Gary S. Silow. "I don't think I've had a worse day in court."
A jury convicted Sperl, of Lansdale, in November of homicide by vehicle for the 2013 crash that claimed the life of Petrille, also of Lansdale, and of leaving the scene of the accident. He was acquitted of DUI homicide, the most serious charge against him.
The courtroom in Norristown was packed Friday with Petrille's family and friends, wearing pins with his photo and red ribbons on their shirts. They testified about Petrille's carefree and loving personality and insisted that, despite the jury's verdict, the crash was caused by Sperl's driving drunk.
"Sean's reckless and selfish actions forever stole Ryan's dreams," said his father, Joseph Petrille.
Sperl's mother, Mirka, also took the stand Friday, begging the judge to have mercy on her son.
"I am so very sorry for the loss of your child," she told the Petrille family. "If I could do anything, I would."
Sperl and Petrille were high school classmates, but not close friends. They went with a group to an April 2013 Phillies game, drinking beer and liquor during the game and on the way home in another friend's car, prosecutors said. Sperl, Petrille, and a friend of Petrille's got into Sperl's car back in Lansdale and planned to go to a strip club.
Prosecutors said Sperl was driving his Honda Civic at more than 80 m.p.h. around a sharp curve on Ridge Road in Salford Township when it hit a utility pole. The car exploded. The front and back halves flew in opposite directions.
Sperl left the scene and woke up hours later in a shed, telling police, "I crashed a car and possibly killed somebody," according to an audio recording played at trial. His blood-alcohol content was 0.175 four hours after the accident, but defense lawyer Charles Mandracchia argued at trial that Sperl could have consumed alcohol in the hours between the accident and his conversations with police.
Mandracchia asked the judge on Friday to spare Sperl from state prison. He said Sperl has a job lined up for the end of his sentence and a bright future ahead of him.
"Why ruin him?" he asked. "Please don't make him a criminal."
After Sperl was led away in handcuffs, Mandracchia called the sentence excessive and said he planned to appeal his client's conviction.
"This case has me in an outrage," he said, claiming Sperl has not received a just trial or fair sentence.
Sperl testified at trial that he did not remember the accident because he sustained a concussion. He apologized to the Petrille family in court Friday, but continued to say that he does not remember what happened, or even whether he was driving the car when it crashed.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of Ryan," he told the judge and the Petrille family, crying. But he still did not admit he was the driver, saying, "I'm just so truly sorry that this accident happened."
Prosecutors argued for a lengthy state prison sentence. Sperl's remorse, said Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Geiser, was "far too little, too late."
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