Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Driver to be sentenced for ‘road rage’ murder
WEST CHESTER >> Attorneys for the two sides in the case against David Desper, who shot and killed a West Chester area teenager during a “road rage” incident on Route 100 both agree that he will serve time in prison for the widely reported shooting.
But the prosecution and defense disagree substantially on what length of incarceration Common Pleas Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft should impose at Desper’s sentencing, scheduled under heavy courthouse security for Thursday.
In sentencing memos filed earlier this week, the attorneys laid out their reasons as to why Desper deserves either a mitigated sentence that would see him serve fewer than 10 years total in prison, or an aggravated one that would call for him to serve the maximum term available under law — more than two decades behind bars.
It will be up to Wheatcraft to bridge the gap between the two recommendations when she hands down her sentence at the conclusion of what is anticipated to be an emotional hearing at the Chester County Justice Center.
Desper, 29, of Trainer, Delaware County, pleaded guilty in September to charges of third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime for the June 28, 2017, fatal shooting of 18-yearold Bianca Roberson, a then-recent graduate of West Chester’s Bayard Rustin High School.
His plea followed the decision by the county District Attorney’s Office to withdraw the charge of first-degree murder in exchange for a guaranteed conviction for murder, rather than a chanced verdict that a jury could opt for manslaughter at trial. The maximum term for the two charges is 22½ to 45 years, versus a mandatory term of life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder
charge.
Desper has been held without bail in Chester County Prison since his arrest in July 2017.
Wheatcraft has set aside four hours for the proceeding to give both sides a chance to make their cases for the appropriate sentence, and to give family and supporters on both sides of the aisle a chance to voice the impact Roberson’s death and Desper’s culpability have had on their lives.
Among those expected to speak to Wheatcraft are Roberson’s parents, Rodney Roberson and Michelle Roberson. Attorney Daniel McGarrigle, the Media defense counsel who has represented Desper since his arrest on July 2, 2017, said in his memo that Desper also plans to address the court.
In a six-page sentencing memo that McGarrigle filed on Tuesday, he argued that there are multiple factors in his client’s favor that should allow Wheatcraft to fashion a sentenced in the mitigated range of state sentencing guidelines, which call for a minimum sentence of 6½ years behind bars.
“Based on the facts of the case as the court now knows them, the almost unprecedented numbers of letters attesting to the defendant’s outstanding character, his complete and absolute acceptance of responsibility, and the fact that Mr. Desper pled guilty at his first opportunity to do so therein sparing the Commonwealth the expense and the (Roberson) family the pain of trial, it would be wholly appropriate for this honorable court to consider a substantially mitigated sentence in this matter,” McGarrigle wrote.
Meanwhile, Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Miller, who are prosecuting the case, contend that Desper’s actions the day of the shooting and his explanations afterwards show a “chilling” lack of responsibility that demand his imprisonment for every available year under the law.
“The defendant’s actions in this case are shocking and senseless,” their memo reads. “he caused the death of an innocent girl who caused him no harm, and his comment that he ‘overreacted’ reflects a deep lack of understanding about the seriousness of his actions. Nothing will bring the victim back in this case. However, an opportunity to prevent the defendant from harming future victims and to punish him for his actions now exists. The Commonwealth respectfully requests that the court impose the maximum sentence on the defendant, the punishment which he has earned.”
In his memo, McGarrigle gave Wheatcraft a biographical profile of Desper, a man with no criminal history whatsoever.
Desper graduated from Chichester High School and began work at a salvage and scrap yard where his father works. He had just been accepted into the Engineers Union Local 542 at the time of the shooting. He was a car and motorcycle enthusiast, and led a drug- and alcohol-free life.
Tellingly, McGarrigle noted that despite what had been broadcast about his client on social media in the months since the killing, Desper did not have any racial motive in the shooting of Roberson, the victim. She was black, and he is white.
“In fact, he did not even know who was driving the green car when he shot the gun,” McGarrigle wrote. “He has no racial bias whatsoever. Police interviews and investigation confirm that he has no ties with any racist groups, that he has a diverse group of friends and is very well-liked in his community.” McGarrigle provided Wheatcraft with more than 80 letters describing Desper as a “person who works hard, is devoted to family, loyal to friends and caring to others.”
In a description of the events surrounding Roberson’s murder, McGarrigle paints a picture of a man who felt threatened in a road duel with another motorist and then consumed with panic and guilt for his reckless behavior.
On July 28, 2017, Desper was driving south on Route 100 in West Goshen along the “spur” that connects Pottstown Pike with Route 202 south. He was driving a red pickup, traveling home from work on a Wednesday evening on his usual route in no rush to get anywhere.
According to Desper’s version of events, he saw a green Malibu, driven by Roberson, come up quickly behind him and swerve abruptly at him from the right. He said he tried to move out of the way, but saw the car swerve at him again, forcing him onto the left-hand shoulder.
“He was afraid, pulled his gun from the top of the (truck cab’s) console area and fired one shot out of the passenger side of the truck,” the defense memo reads. “(He) momentarily hesitated after this but was almost immediately engulfed by panic and fled the area.
“He did not see the driver when he shot and did not know that his shot had killed her until he learned of it on social media,” the memo states.
McGarrigle emphasizes in the memo, as he has in the past, that Desper turned himself in to West Goshen authorities voluntarily, and before the police — who had been searching for the driver of the red pickup that was captured on highway surveillance video, images of which had been broadcast across the region — had identified him. He gave them permission to search the home he shared with his father, and told them where to find the weapon he has used.
The defense attorney’s explanation of why it took from the time of the shooting to four days later for Desper to surrender is that he was waiting to speak with his mother about what had happened. She was out of state at the time, so he waited until she returned. He went to work as normal the next two days. He did not tell his mother what happened because she was upset over a relative’s illness, and instead went to visit a friend in Delaware that weekend.
Finally, he called his parents, met them at McGarrigle’s office, and turned himself in.
In the memo filed Wednesday by Frei and Miler, they give a different interpretation of what happened on the roadway that afternoon. While not disputing the timeline of events or an eyewitness view of the “cat-and-mouse” game between the two drivers characterized by authorities at the time, the prosecutors note that there was never any violent contact between the two cars that could have given rise to justified terror on Desper’s part.
“The defendant had no discernible reason to point a gun at Bianca Roberson,” their memo states flatly. Roberson was not swerving toward Desper’s pickup, they maintain, but was negotiating a curve in the highway. She maintained her right of way at all times.
“Bianca did not ram the defendant, did not sideswipe the defendant, did not even tap the defendant,” the memo states. “Even according to the defendant, Bianca never yelled at him or even ‘flipped him off.’ All she was doing was driving in a car much less imposing than Desper’s pickup. For the defendant to claim he was afraid is ludicrous.”
The prosecutors were unsparing in the way they viewed Desper’s decision to fire a shot at the car he was engaged with. “(He) then pulled out a gun. He pointed it at Bianca. He pulled the trigger. He snuffed out her life like a man swatting a fly. And then he ran away like a coward, not even stopping to witness the murder he had wrought.”
The memo also questions Desper’s expressions of remorse in the case.
“It is only when the defendant believed that someone was looking for him that he showed emotion,” Frei and Miller wrote. “It is telling that his emotion was not remorse, but fear. He left for the beach several days earlier than planned, and left his car at a friend’s house instead of leaving it at his. He laid low and played miniature golf while silently reading news of the manhunt going on for him.”
A friend’s joke that his truck looked like the one police were searching for was met with silence.
Frei and Miller maintain that it was not until clearer images of the truck involved in the shooting were broadcast, pinning the vehicle closer to his home, that Desper decided to turn himself in, the memo states.
They note that in the presentencing investigation report ordered by Wheatcraft, Desper “all but comes out and blames Bianca for causing him to pull out a gun and murder her. The defendant does not experience remorse, and therefore only the maximum sentence is the only message he will understand.”
Roberson’s life was summarized as one of potential and sterling character, marked by the tragic death of her older brother, Mykel Roberson, when she was 14. She was described as a “shining light in this too often dark world,” by co-workers at the White Horse retirement village where she and her mother worked, and where she was known for her “wisdom, kindness, loyalty, and willingness to listen to to people’s problems in the middle of the night.”
Roberson was preparing for college on the last day of her life, having been accepted on a full merit scholarship to Jacksonville University in Florida.
“On June 28, 2017, Bianca drove her Chevy Malibu to the Exton WalMart to pick up school supplies for her first year of college. She never returned,” the memo states.