70-year-old guilty in DUI crash

DA declined comment on the verdict or what sentence he would ask the judge to impose

A 70-year-old West Goshen man faces the possibility of serving a state prison sentence after having been convicted last week of a drunk driving crash that severely injured a bicyclist.

Common Pleas Judge Patrick Carmody on Wednesday, at the end of a non-jury trial that spanned two days in May and July, found Richard Robinson guilty of aggravated assault while driving under the influence of alcohol for the 2014 crash on Hannum Avenue at the western end of West Chester.

The charge is a second-degree felony punishable by a maximum term of five to 10 years in state prison. In other cases involving the charge in Chester County, judges have sentenced offenders to prison terms ranging from 1 1/2 years to five years and 21 months to 42 months. Any sentence calling for a minimum incarceration over one year in length must by law be served in a state prison.

Carmody also found Robin- son, who has three lifetime convictions for drunk driving, guilty of DUI and simple assault.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco, who prosecuted the case before Carmody, declined comment on the verdict or what sentence he would ask Carmody to impose when Robinson appears for sentencing later this year.

According to court records, at 3:30 p.m. on March 8, 2014 Robin-

son was behind the wheel of a 2003 Ford Ranger pickup truck that was stopped in the 400 block of Hannum Avenue in front of the Lukoil convenience store and gas station, heading east. As traffic in the opposite direction passed Robinson’s truck, he began to turn left into the parking lot.

But coming the other way was Luke Scott of Malvern, a local business owner and contractor, who was riding a 10-speed bicycle down Hannum Avenue from Chestnut Street. According to police, Robinson turned directly into Scott’s path. Scott hit the passenger side door of the pickup, was thrown over the front of the truck, and landed on the pavement.

Scott, who testified during the first day of Robinson’s non-jury trial in May, said he did not remember anything about the crash. He told police that the first thing he remembers is looking at his broken arm and asking to be taken to Paoli Hospital.

Scott, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, was eventually taken to Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, where he stayed for nine days. he suffered a fractured skull, broken wrists, a fractured hip, and torn ligaments. At the time of the trial, he had to walk with the aid of a cane, and said he continues to have problems with his balance such that he cannot ride a bicycle.

Assistant Public Defender James McMullen, who represented Robinson, argued that the injuries to Scott did not rise to the level of “serious bodily injury” needed to convict a defendant of aggravated assault while DUI. he also said that Scott had failed to stop on his bicycle, contributing to the crash himself.

But a witness for the prosecution, Tanis GarberShaw, testified in May that she had seen Scott coming down the slight hill from West Chestnut Street on Hannum Avenue, and that the path between the bicyclist and Robinson’s truck was clear.

In a memo, Ost-Prisco wrote that Robinson had an unobstructed view of Scott, and should have been able to see him clearly before he started to turn into the gas station parking area. When Scott was just 10 feet in front of Robinson in the westbound lane of traffic, Robinson turned left “without any regard for Mr. Scott,” Ost-Prisco wrote.

When Officer Aaron Davis, who investigated the crash, spoke with Robinson afterwards, he could smell alcohol on his breath, Davis wrote in a criminal complaint. He failed several field sobriety tests, and a later check of his blood alcohol level showed he had a BAC of .15, almost twice the legal limit for intoxication.

Robinson remains free on bail pending sentencing.